BAGUIO CITY – The mayors of Baguio City, and La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay towns, or BLISTT, agreed to limit non- essential travel anew from December 27 to December 31 to mitigate any surge in the incidence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The measure will be implemented following the marked increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Benguet province with 55 new cases, 26 of which were recorded in La Trinidad, and 21 in Itogon, on Friday, December 25.
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda, Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan and Tublay Mayor Armando Lauro gave the green light for the reimposition of the border limitations, and were just waiting for Sablan Mayor Manuel Munar and Tuba Mayor Clarita Sal-ongan to give their decision.
It is expected that the requirements and procedures would be similar to the previous border limitations imposed from December 16 to December 22, which limited the entry to and between BLISTT to travels for work or official business, and for access to essential goods and services.
People on essential travels were required to present valid government issued ID as proof of residence and health declaration forms.
Once firmed up, a joint order will be issued by the BLISTT mayors.
The Baguio City Health Service Office posted 24 new cases on Christmas Day, 13 of which were from contact tracing, one from expanded testing, and six were detected as symptomatic. There were 27 recoveries.
As of December 25, the city has a total of 340 active cases (9.12 percent), 3,329 recoveries (89.35 percent), and 57 death (1.53 percent) from a total of 3,726 confirmed cases since March. Only 23 of 129 barangays in the city remain on lockdown.