Amid calls to scrap it due to increase of COVID-19 cases

By: LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA/ROEL T. AMAZONA

TACLOBAN CITY- Mayor Alfred Romualdez of this city said he welcomes residents of this city who are returning home under the ‘Balik Probinsiya’ program of the government, to include the overseas workers.
Romualdez said that these people should not be deprived of their right to return home despite some calls for them to remain where they currently stay amid the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) pandemic.
“They should not be barred from returning home. It is their constitutional right to return home. Will you not allow your loved ones to return home?” Romualdez said.
To recall, Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez asked the national agencies to conduct swab samples to those who wish to return to the provinces to ensure that they are not carriers of the virus and would not cause any spread of the virus.
Ormoc City has posted its first COVID-19 case involving an overseas worker.
The COVID-19 cases of Eastern Visayas, particularly Leyte, saw an increase after several of those who returned home under the Balik Probinsiya program as well as the local overseas workers started returning.
In Leyte, which was among the first provinces of the country to implement the Balik Probinsya program, its COVID-19 now stand at 17 cases.
In Tacloban City, two of its COVID-19 cases involved returning overseas workers. Its first case, involving a 29- year old woman, was reported by the City Health Office to have recovered from the deadly ailment and has now returned to her home where she will undergo another 14-day quarantine as part of the health protocols.
Mayor Romualdez said that the government, to include the local government units, are doing their effort to ensure that the coronavirus would not further spread.
For one, he said, those who are returning home are immediately being quarantined to isolation facilities put up by the local government units.
The city government here has put up its own isolation center located at the northern part of the city which was originally built as an evacuation center.