Laoag City – The province of Ilocos Norte is under modified enhanced community quarantine until Aug. 31 and the travel ban, even for returning residents, remains to prevent the surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.
In a public advisory on last Friday, the provincial government announced the travel suspension extension that applies to returning residents, visiting residents, returning students, individuals on non-essential trips, tourists, and individuals stranded in other provinces or regions.
“We are hoping that they will delay their travel but if they are already in transit and if it’s an emergency situation or for humanitarian reasons, we can consider,” Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc said in an online message.
Exempted from the travel ban are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have scheduled arrivals in the province until Aug. 31, as long as they coordinate with authorities beforehand.
Last Thursday, Ilocos Norte recorded 230 new cases following contact tracing and mass testing in villages, particularly those with at least one confirmed Delta variant case.
The province has 4,345 active cases as of Aug. 19 out of the total 13,042 infections since last year. A total of 8,541 have recovered while 156 died.
(Leilanie Adriano via Philippine News Agency, photo courtesy of Ilocos Norte Provincial Government)