GENERAL SANTOS CITY- The city government has suspended all commercial flights at the city’s international airport here starting Monday, August 24, amid the surge in local transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the city.
The local Inter-Agency Task Force vs. Emerging Infectious Diseases has recommended to the local government the suspension of commercial flights at the General Santos City international airport while local frontliners have been pre-occupied in the implementation of localized lockdown in several villages in the city where there were reported local transmission of COVID-19.
Local authorities have imposed localized lockdown in the villages of Barangays Apopong, Bula and Fatima in the wake of reported COVID-19 local transmission wherein a medical frontliner assigned with the city health office was among those who tested positive for the virus.
City Mayor Ronnel Rivera stressed that some health personnel who had come in close contact with an infected colleague were placed under quarantine.
He said that city government was currently being plagued with the lack of medical frontliners to man the airport to facilitate the arrival of locally-stranded individuals (LSI) and returning overseas workers as many of them have already been deployed to implement the localized lockdown in several barangays.
“The city government decided to spare our overworked and overburdened frontliners who will be deployed at the airport and quarantine facilities to facilitate the safety protocols for returning LSI and OFW,” Rivera said.
He said the city government might be able to allow the resumption of commercial flights at the city’s airport after the medical frontliners have completed their mandatory quarantine and the contact-tracing of people affected by the COVID-19 local transmission.
The city has reported more than 50 confirmed COVID-19 cases.