Bacolod City – The city is not imposing additional restrictions after it was placed under Alert Level 4 by the National Inter-Agency Task Force, Em Ang, Emergency Operations Center executive director, said yesterday after they were informed by the NIATF Secretariat that the COVID-19 alert level system is not subject to appeal.
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia had requested Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to downgrade the city’s status to Alert Level 3 from November 1 to 14 after pointing out that the COVID-19 attack rate in Bacolod is declining the last two weeks of October.
Ang, who is also coordinator of the COvID-19 Vaccination Center (CoVaC), said “We will remain on status quo like we were under General Community Quarantine with Heightened Restrictions.” The city is not imposing additional restrictions because COVID-19 cases have declined, as well as the number of deaths, and healthcare capacity utilization.
They will continue to impose all guidelines based on previous executive orders issued by the mayor, she said.
Ang said that based on the situational report of the Department of Health – Region 6 the classification of Bacolod is only Alert Level 3 in Western Visayas.
Although COVID-19 cases and all indications have gone down in Bacolod City, she reminded the people not to be confident. “We are reminding the public to continue to observe minimum health protocols and to get vaccinated if they are eligible, Ang added.
Based on DOH Region 6 data, Bacolod has the second highest percentage of fully vaccinated population in Western Visayas with 42.28 percent.
About 12 percent of Bacolodnons were partially vaccinated as of October 29.
(Chrysee Semillano via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of Bacolod City Public Information Office)
