By Helen Castaño and Cristina Lajot | 01:46 PM March 13, 2020
Bohol, a province with a population of over 1.3 million people, will be placed on ‘community quarantine’ for at least four days to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Philippines.
This was announced by Bohol Governor Arthur Yap on Friday morning during his weekly radio program “Ang Tingog sa Bol-anon,” a day after President Rodrigo Duterte declared a “community quarantine” in Metro Manila.
Yap said the quarantine will begin on March 16 and will last until March 20, 2020.
“How do we prevent? How do we detect, how do we monitor? Where do we bring if somebody is suspected beyond that infuenza life symptom? Asa sila dad-on? Kinsa ang mga first reosonders? What will be the procedures? Do we have enough medicines? Do we have enough testing kits? To help us organize into work teams, we need time to meet and divide ourselves among the mayors, local officials, national and local agencies, civic and religious organizations,” Yap said.
Yap stressed it is not a lockdown.
“If people want to leave, they are allowed to leave. That’s why this is not a lockdown. A lockdown [means] nobody comes in and nobody goes out. A lockdown means you stay in your home. You cannot go out. A lockdown means there is no process. A lockdown means all agencies will be closed. This is not a lockdown ladies and gentlemen, correct your knowledge..correct your social media information. This is a community quarantine,” he explained.
The governor said people from Bohol can travel within Bohol and outside Bohol and to other places that have no restrictions or lockdown but they could not come back to Bohol within that period.
Visitors and tourists are not allowed in Bohol for that period.
He said all short term visitors who are currently in Bohol are advised to leave Bohol or they can choose to stay.
Public gatherings are also disallowed, he added.
The country is currently under a state of health emergency related to national security.
“I can only do this community quarantine next week to assess the readiness of our province. Mao na kinahanglan nako inyong suporta ug pag-ampo. I pray for all of you that God will bless you and protect you and God will save Bohol and our country,” he said.
