By Marie Marticio TACLOBAN City - Mayor Alfred Romualdez issued an executive order for the localized cancellation or suspension of classes in public and private schools from March 13-20 in all levels as a precautionary measure against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). "We find it too risky to have classes continue considering that we have a 100,000 students here, both from public and private schools. Mas mabuti ng handa tayo dahil itong virus na 'to ay nakakamatay talaga. I'm not saying this for us to panic, but in a way, we panic but we do things correctly to prevent the spread (of the virus)," he explained. The executive order also aims "to give time and opportunity for school officials to study and formulate preventive measures, infection control and response systems within their respective institutions." Public and private school officials were also ordered to undertake sanitation and disinfection of their respective school premises, in coordination or with the assistance of the City Government. He also called on barangay officials to provide schools with thermal scanners for them to monitor and report any symptoms, as well as any travelers who came from abroad for monitoring. Although he was confident that school officials were doing everything they could to prevent the virus from spreading, the mayor said that he was more concerned of the students while traveling to and from their schools. "Our children are vulnerable. We are also concerned that they use public utility vehicles (PUVs), and many of them eat their lunch outside (their schools). It's also difficult because most students come from various provinces," he added. According to him, the order was also in anticipation of the possible extension of suspension of classes in the National Capital Region (NCR) where students may go home to their provinces considering that Tacloban has only 17 flights daily. "I would recommend that they go home first to their provinces and stay indoors until this passes. If this clears up within a month, then everything will go back to normal, those activities would push through," he said reffering to activities that were postponed because of the virus such as the Eastern Visayas Regional Athletic Associations (EVRAA) Meet. He likewise urged establishments to exercise caution because of the possibility that some students would take advantage of the class suspension to go to malls or computer shops. Meanwhile, the official said that it was just his initial announcement as they were still monitoring the situation in NCR, but he also clarified that he was not considering a full lockdown of the city. "I am sad that it will affect the economy of Tacloban but I don't want to risk it. We've already suffered enough," he said. The official also disclosed that they were monitoring a patient under investigation (PUI) who is a teacher. According to him, the patient's husband who works in Europe came and left again for Europe in February. She has shown symptoms such as fever for a week now.