Bacolod City and Negros Oriental will be under Alert Level 4 from Nov. 1 to 14, as announced today, Oct. 29, by Malacañang.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the Inter Agency Task Force approved the recommendation to expand the implementation of alert level system to three more regions, including Bacolod City in Western Visayas, Negros Oriental in Central Visayas, Aurora in Central Luzon and Davao Occidental in Davao region.
Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Capiz, Guimaras, Aklan and Antique in Western Visayas, however, were placed on Alert Level 2.
Under Alert Level 4, indoor dine-in services and fitness studios and gyms may operate at a 10 percent venue capacity while outdoor dine-in services and fitness studios and gyms may operate at a 30 percent venue capacity.
Areas under Alert Level 4 are those with high or increasing cases of COVID-19, hospital bed and intensive care utilization, while Alert Level 2 is hoisted in areas where case transmission is low and decreasing healthcare utilization.
COVID-19 active cases in Negros Occidental further dropped to 3,170 yesterday, from its peak of 4,400 two weeks ago, according to a report of the Provincial Incident Management Team.
Earlier, Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo asked the IATF to reconsider its decision to place the province under Alert Level 4.
He pointed out that COVID-19 cases in Negros Oriental are decreasing and hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, not from the province, but from southern Cebu and Siquijor. — GB
