Zamboanga bars ships from Malaysia

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The local government has suspended Saturday the entry of vessels here from Sabah in Malaysia and tightened its land border with neighboring provinces following the death of a patient infected with new coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, in Cagayan de Oro City.

Mayor Beng Climaco presides over a meeting on Covid-19. (Giana Andrion)

Mayor Beng Climaco made the announcement following a series of meetings with health authorities and the Bureau of Quarantine. Malaysia has nearly 200 Covid-19 cases and 15 of them in Sabah. So far, Zamboanga City remains free from the deadly disease, at least for now.

“We urge our law enforcement agencies to strictly monitor and deny the rampant entry of passenger and other nonconventional vessels operating in the area. We also call on our neighboring provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to implement the same stringent measures to secure our borders from the current threat of Covid-19,” she said.

Climaco also said that all public gatherings, such as concerts, cooperative and village assemblies, cockfighting and other large public congregation were also cancelled. She said even school graduation ceremonies were likewise cancelled, but education officials may opt to allow “modified classroom graduation programs as closing ceremonies in schools.”

Families and relatives of prisoners were not allowed to visit jails after authorities also suspended this privilege. “These guidelines will be in effect until the lifting of the national health emergency declared by President Duterte,” Climaco said.

Policemen and soldiers also put up checkpoints in the border with Zamboanga Sibugay province and were ordered to screen travellers to prevent the entry of the deadly coronavirus that have infected dozens of Filipinos and killed 8 others, one of them died in hospital in Cagayan de Oro in northern Mindanao.

The disease is so widespread that Duterte ordered the lockdown of the National Capital Region for 30 days effective March 15, and declared Code Red Level 2 - the highest level of national response management to contain the virus in metropolitan areas.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque, citing various data, said elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic lung disease, and immunosuppression (immune system is not functioning as it should) are vulnerable to the disease. “We further urge those who are immunocompromised (having an impaired immune system) and are with existing health conditions to be more vigilant and avoid crowded areas and mass gatherings,” he said.

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease - first reported in December last year in Wuhan City in China’s Hubei province - pandemic after it spread to over 114 countries. It said there are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and over 4,000 people had died from the infection, believed to have originated from bats. (Zamboanga Post)

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