The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) raised its status to full alert during the Timeout Weekend which started yesterday Aug 28, and will end on Monday, Aug 31, 2020.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Pico, BCPO’s public information officer, said border control points was already established within the city last Aug 27.
Under the timeout weekend, mass testing for 5,000 symptomatic residents of Bacolod is scheduled from Aug 28 to 29.
Pico said more police officers will be deployed to the streets, along with some force multipliers to ensure that nobody will violate the order of the local government unit during the period.
A team of eight officers will be assigned to man more than 30 border control check-up points here, he said.
Vehicles will have to stop by check-up points so that police officers can check their identification cards and documents especially for those exempted from the lockdown.
He said non-residents will not be allowed to enter the city, except for essential workers.
Violators will be facing charges.
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said only targeted lockdown in three cities and one municipality will be implemented after the National Inter-Agency Task Force against the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 did not give its full nod to the move.
In a press conference, Lacson said all other cities and municipalities in the province will continue to follow the protocols under the Modified General Community Quarantine.
He also said that local chief executives of the four local government units (LGUs) covered by the Timeout Weekend will determine the specified areas to be placed under lockdown.
The lockdown shall only be limited to specific areas such as barangays and puroks (sub-villages) within the respective LGU and shall not include national roads.
Each LGU shall have the discretion to declare localized or targeted lockdown.
The governor said all national roads will remain open for the unhampered passage of travel of essential goods and Authorized Persons Outside Their Residence (APOR).
The mass testing will address the upsurge in local transmission cases.
Lacson said the province has not reached an alarming level in COVID cases.
On the other hand, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia also issued Thursday morning Executive Order No. 55 for the conduct of COVID-19 Mass Testing under the “O-Plan: One-Time, Big-Time.”
The mass testing is a joint program with the provincial government of Negros Occidental and four other LGUs.
In an earlier advisory, Leonardia said that residents of the city must stay at home from Aug 28-31,2020 while at least 5,000 residents, who are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, will be subjected to swab tests.
Mass testing in the city is Aug 28-29 while for four identified localities in the province are scheduled on Aug 30-31.
(Glazyl Masculino via The Daily Guardian, photo by Bacolod City Public Information Office)