THE mayor of Kalibo, Aklan has ordered the indefinite suspension of classes in some schools located near a training center where some Chinese nationals have been quarantined for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that has sickened thousands in China.

The Aklan Provincial Health Office has put under quarantine 11 Chinese nationals who have been considered persons under investigation for 2019-nCoV. Their holding area is the Governor Corazon Legaspi-Cabagnot Memorial Training Center located in Old Buswang, Kalibo, Aklan. They were earlier monitored for symptoms of the 2019-nCoV at the Dr. Rafael S. Tumbokon Memorial Hospital.

In Executive Order 004 issued Wednesday, January 29, 2020, Mayor Emerson Lachica said the suspension of classes is necessary as a precautionary measure "to prevent any transmission to students, the faculty, school administrators, school personnel/employees, residents and constituents in that part of Kalibo, and to placate the grave concern it has caused to the same."

The schools where classes have been suspended include the Regional Science High School for Region VI (Western Visayas; Saint Gabriel College (preschool, elementary, junior and senior high school); Buswang Old-Bachao Sur Elementary School; and Starglow Center for Academic and Arts.

Lachica said the suspension will be in effect until such time that the incubation period is over, the Chinese nationals are repatriated and proper decontamination procedures are completed.

He said the move is also in response to the alarming situation that has gripped not only the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, China, but also other cities and provinces in other parts of the world.

The General Welfare Clause of the Local Government Code (Section 16 of Republic Act 7160) states that every local government unit can "exercise the powers necessary, appropriate or incidental for its efficient and effective governance, and those which are essential to the promotion of the general welfare." (SunStar Philippines)