ILOILO CITY—Mayor Jerry Treñas has ordered hotels, inns and other places of accommodation to bar non-residents from staying at their establishments as the city grapples to find spaces to isolate persons being monitored for possible coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“I am appealing to all accredited establishments to make exclusive your accommodation services to residents of Iloilo City,” said Treñas in a letter released Wednesday, August 26.
The city, which has been reverted back to general community quarantine (GCQ) status since August 16, is dealing with more than 500 active COVID-19 cases that are mostly local transmissions.
Over the weekend, the situation was exacerbated when repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) arrived unannounced. Then there were also separate trips that transported locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
The city government has used up available government facilities to isolate the COVID-19 positive cases, the suspected cases, the OFWs, and the LSIs.
The city government is expecting more than 1,000 more repatriated OFWs and LSIs to arrive within the week and there’s no more space for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Treñas urged local government units (LGUs) of towns and component city of Iloilo province to facilitate where its respective repatriated OFWs and LSIs will stay.
“Non-city residents should be therefore be referred to establishments in their own respective ,” Treñas said.
Meanwhile, Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. and Mayor Trixie Fernandez, who is president of the mayor’s league, have assured that LGUs in the province’s 42 towns and component city of Passi will facilitate accommodation for the next batch of repatriated OFWs and LSIs.