The Leyte provincial government will again require returning residents to undergo a mandatory quarantine upon arrival and submit to a swab test after five days.

This was announced by Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla during the provincial inter-agency task force meeting in Palo town on Thursday.

Leyte province used to enforce the mandatory quarantine and swab test to returning residents as part of its coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) prevention and mitigation measures backed by a provincial ordinance approved last year.

The ordinance also imposes penalties on returning residents who will fail to comply with the requirement.

The directive also mandates returning residents to report or inform their respective municipal or city health officer about their arrival for monitoring.

These rules were set aside by the province after the national government issued a resolution in March this year, mandating all local government units to adopt the unified travel protocols, which does not require mandatory Covid-19 testing.

With these changes, Petilla said that cases have increased in almost all 40 towns and one city in Leyte provinces.

From 552 cases in March, it went up to 620 cases in April and surged to 1,172 cases in May. The majority of the cases are from close contact with previous Covid-19 confirmed patients.

“Most of the returning residents infected with Covid-19 are asymptomatic. If they manifest symptoms few days after their arrival, they would not inform local health authorities. For the past several weeks, I have been talking to the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Health if we can revert the travel protocol and we got the go signal,” Petilla said during the meeting.

The governor is optimistic that the mandatory quarantine and swab testing will help in the reduction of Covid-19 cases in the province.

“When we had a surge of cases last year, it was only recorded in three or four towns, but now we see this in almost all areas in the province,” Petilla said.

The governor added that as much as possible the province is trying to avoid imposing total lockdown but declaring granular lockdown in affected areas if it is only on the village level.

From March 2020 to June 1, 2021, Leyte province has recorded 7,692 confirmed Covid-19.

Photo Source: Facebook/Leyte