Mayor Benjamin Magalong said Tuesday Baguio City is not allowed to accept tourists after it was placed under general community quarantine (GCQ).
“Technically bawal pa. Hintayin pa namin ‘yung approval ng Department of Tourism. They will endorse that to IATF kung puwede kaming tumanggap, such the case na ginawa sa Batangas,” Magalong said on ANC.
(Technically, it was not allowed. We are still waiting for the approval of the Department of Tourism. They will endorse that to IATF if we can accept tourists, just like what Batangas did.)
Magalong appealed to tourists to wait for updates and not make plans on visiting Baguio City yet.
“Just wait for further announcement. But for the meantime, we are not allowing tourists to come up to Baguio City,” he said.
Meanwhile, Magalong also reported that the COVID-19 cases in Baguio City are decreasing.
The mayor said the city has recorded 5,100 COVID-19 cases but more than 400 are active ones.
“At present, we have 480 plus na active cases and for the past five to four days, bumababa na siya, averaging 23, 24 cases a day,” Magalong told ANC.
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Baguio City cannot accept tourists under GCQ
The government placed the entire Cordillera region after UK COVID-19 variant cases were reported in Bontoc and La Trinidad in Benguet province.
Department of Health (DOH) earlier reported that 89 contacts of UK variant cases in Bontoc, La Trinidad tested positive for COVID-19.
Eighty-three were from Bontoc, Mountain Province and six were from La Trinidad.
“To clarify, 410 contacts for Bontoc UK variant cluster had been identified with 83 testing positive for RT-PCR…Doon sa 83, additional eight na mga positive for RT-PCR are for sequencing,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
“From the La Trinidad case, 37 are identified as contacts. Six were positive. And two of the six were sent to sequencing,” she added.
Twelve cases of COVID-19 with the UK variant have been detected so far in Bontoc and also one in La Trinidad.
As of February 1, the Philippines recorded 1,658 new cases of COVID-19 while 27 recovered and 58 died of the disease.