The Batanes provincial government has insisted that it will continue to enforce strict admission policies, despite the new rules issued by the National Inter-Agency Task Force against COVID-19.
In NIATF Resolution No. 98-A series of 2021 released on February 4, “unimpeded travel” or unrestricted travel by government officials with “official business” are allowed.
But in an official statement posted on the Facebook page of the Provincial Government of Batanes just this Wednesday, Governo Marilou Cayco said that although they respect the intent of the NIATF resolution it will not hinder their implementation of strict policies including 14- day quarantine protocol to the coming people in the province.
According to Cayco, the lack of medical equipment and health personnel in their province is a big problem, so the implementation of the 14-day mandatory quarantine is the most effective defense of Ivatans against the spread of COVID-19.
“The 14-day mandatory quarantine allows our limited health workers and other frontliners to easily and efficiently perform their duties such as case management and contact tracing. Because of this policy, we were able to easily contain the virus and prevented a community transmission when we had our three confirmed COVID-19 cases,” said Cayco.
Batanes gov. maintains no exception in province’s 14-day quarantine
The governor also clarified that they continue to welcome residents who want to return to the province.
They also said that the provincial government will not interfere with government officials who will conduct official business in Batanes as long as they comply with the 14-day mandatory quarantine.
According to the COVID-19 Tracker of the Department of Health (DOH), there are no active cases of COVID-19 in Batanes while there are three recorded total cases where all have been recovered.
In September 2020, Batanes reported its first case of COVID-19, months after it was COVID-free.
Batanes braced itself for COVID-19 as early as January 2020, according to its governor Marilou Cayco.
“Bago pa man mag-deklara ng community quarantine ang NCR, maaga nang nagkaroon ng iba’t ibang pagpupulong ang task force. Maaga ring in-activate ang mga barangay health emergency response teams. Maaga rin kaming nagsara,” she said.