TACLOBAN CITY – The local government of Kananga, Leyte will temporarily stop accepting returning residents as its designated quarantine facilities have reached full capacity.
In a statement issued Thursday, Mayor Manuel Vicente Torres said this includes all returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), Balik Probinsiya, Balik Pag-as a program beneficiary, and locally stranded individuals (LSIs) regardless of their place of origin.
“Our quarantine facilities with a total of 120 beds are already loaded. Thus, we could no longer continue accepting new arrivals until further notice, as we have no more space to isolate them,” he said.
On June 16, the Department of Health (DOH) announced the town’s first coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) case admitted at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center here.
The local government said the community where the patient resides in Rizal village was placed under lockdown the next day to prevent a possible spread of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, two adjacent communities in Kawayan and San Isidro villages were also placed under lockdown on Monday, after it was found that a resident had close contact with a coronavirus patient from nearby Ormoc City.
“This is to protect my constituents from the local transmission of the virus. The increasing number of Covid-19 cases in our province is alarming considering than more half of the province’s towns and cities have at least one positive case,” Torres said.
Since the outbreak in the country, Eastern Visayas has confirmed a total of 342 cases, including 36 recoveries and zero death, according to the DOH monitoring report.
Of the total, 160 are from Leyte, 74 from Samar, 42 from Ormoc City, 33 from Southern Leyte, 21 from Tacloban City, seven from Northern Samar, four from Biliran, and one from Eastern Samar.
(GERICO SABALZA/PNA)
