Acting Presidential Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles announced Wednesday evening, January 12, that the highly urbanized city will be elevated to one level higher from January 14 to 31.
Aside from Bacolod City, Nograles, who heads the IATF, also placed the provinces of Aklan, Antique and Capiz in Western Visayas under Alert Level 3 from the previous Alert Level 2 status.
Negros Occidental, on the other hand, remains under Alert Level 2.
Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) Executive Director Em Ang said, though, that total lockdown in Bacolod City is unlikely.
Ang said the elevation of the city’s alert status was based on the increase of the two-week growth, hospital utilization and daily average attack rates.
She said the year started with single-digit average daily cases, but the cases are already hitting two digits in a day lately.
“Although these increases are not that alarming,” Ang also said, adding that only surgical lockdown among households might be implemented.
The City Government earlier allayed fears, saying there is no local transmission yet of the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 in Bacolod City.
Dr. Chris Sorongon, the task force’s deputy for medical and data analysis, made this clarification following reports about a cruise ship crew member who tested positive for the more contagious variant while visiting his wife in Bacolod City.
The City Government, however, is still reminding the public that since Bacolod’s alert status has been elevated, stricter compliance of minimum health protocols should be observed.
As of Wednesday, Bacolod City has 79 additional cases, bringing the total number of active Covid-19 cases to 445.
