By Joseph B.A. Marzan
After an almost three-week moratorium, Locally-Stranded Individuals (LSI) can return to Iloilo City starting Aug 22, 2020, as announced by the city government on Monday.
City Public Information Officer Lucy M. Sinay confirmed Monday that repatriations will resume Saturday.
In a press conference, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said that they are expecting around 350 LSIs per week.
“Our historical data states a daily average of about 50 LSI, that means 350 every week,” the mayor said.
The city’s COVID-19 Task Force spokesperson Jeck Conlu said that while the city only has 74 beds remaining in its quarantine facilities, they continue to find more areas to serve as quarantine facilities.
Conlu earlier said that the city is now tapping other lodging houses and schools as they expect a surge in repatriates.
“As of our last information, we still have 74 beds available. But we continue to identify more quarantine facilities. Our facility manager Gab [Umadhay] has been going around the city, as per instruction by the mayor, in preparation for the resumption of arrivals next week. This is a huge challenge for us, but we are thankful that there are some who support us and the city is organizing its resources to prepare for the arrivals,” Conlu said.
The mayor also said that the city government is now addressing concerns on amenities in schools which will serve as quarantine facilities.
“We met regarding the schools because we saw that some schools had no water connection, others need their toilet bowl replaced and would need septic tanks. These would be addressed, and we will meet with the school board [today].
Repatriations were temporarily halted starting from Aug 8 to 18, after National Task Force on COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez on August 7 issued a memorandum approving the request for a moratorium by Iloilo City, Bacolod City, and Negros Occidental province.
The request was coursed through a resolution crafted by the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 VI and the Western Visayas Regional Task Force on COVID-19.
This was due to the growing number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in these areas.
