Ilocos Norte lifts ban on entry of returning folks

COPS stop vehicles at Ilocos Norte checkpoint to contain spread of Covid-19. (Photo courtesy of Ilocos Norte provincial government)

By John Michael Mugas

LAOAG CITY—Ilocos Norte is opening its borders starting Sept. 1 to returning residents who have been banned from coming home, Gov. Matthew Marcos Manotoc said Monday, Aug. 30.
    The order to lift the ban was released on the same day when Manotoc extended the localized enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the most strict containment classification in the country, in at least 19 towns and cities until Sept. 7.
    The provincial government asked returning residents, including locally stranded individuals and overseas Filipinos, to coordinate their travel to the province with their local governments.
    Ilocos Norte previously implemented the border protocol to “better manage the COVID-19 situation” in the province.
Returning residents who submit negative results of reverse transcription-Polymerase chain reaction test, taken within 60 hours before travel, would no longer need to undergo “official quarantine” in a government-run facility in the province.

They are, however, encouraged to minimize movement and undergo home quarantine for at least one week in a separate room in their household, the provincial government said

“The province reserves the right to directly accept entrants,” said the provincial government.