BAUKO, Mountain Province May 20 – The municipal government worked out the smooth travel of some 12 stranded students from Baguio and La Trinidad back to the municipality following the implementation of the general community quarantine (GCQ) in most parts of the Cordillera.
Mayor Abraham B. Akilit said the returning stranded students successfully assessed to have qualify for the strict guidelines being imposed by the municipal government to ensure the municipality will remain free from the dreaded Coronavirus Disease (COVID) 2019.
He disclosed that the returning stranded students will undergo the prescribed 14-day home quarantine or isolation in established quarantine centers upon arrival in the locality before they will be allowed to rejoin their families.
The municipal chief executive claimed the municipal government opened the application for stranded students wanting to go home to allow the concerned offices to evaluate and assess whether or not there will be available isolation areas in their residences for them to undergo their prescribed isolation.
For those whose residences do not qualify for home isolation, the municipal mayor revealed they will be required to undergo their 14-day quarantine in the established isolation centers such as the newly constructed evacuation center and the building of the State-run Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC) which are sufficient to cater to the isolation needs of the returning stranded students.
According to him, municipal and barangay officials, health personnel, law enforcers and volunteers made supreme sacrifices in implementing the extended Luzonwide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to ensure there will be no untoward incident that might ruin the gains of the local government in sustaining the status of the municipality as COVID-free.
Akilit stated that other locally stranded individuals coming from areas with reported COVID cases will have to undergo the same procedures as that imposed on returning students.
Earlier, the Cordillera Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Cordillera Inter-Agency Task Force on the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases formulated the guidelines governing returning locally stranded individuals to allow local governments regionwide to allow the entry of their constituents coming from different places upon compliance to the required quarantine period and the submission of pertinent medical certificates from the local health office of the place of origin to justify their return to their homes.
Akilit assured the municipal government will continue to be vigilant to prevent unchecked individuals from sneaking into the locality and posing threat to the health and safety of their family members and the community.
By HENT
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis
