AT LEAST two local chief executives are calling on national agencies to ban the entry of Chinese tourists in Cebu to protect their residents from the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
In separate interviews, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella and Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan said they will ask the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Department of Health (DOH), respectively, to ban flights from China and the entry of Chinese nationals from Wuhan in China’s Hubei province and adjacent provinces.
Labella said this is to ensure the safety of Cebu City residents from the 2019-nCoV that has already claimed the lives of more than 100 Chinese nationals as of 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020 with more than 4,500 people infected worldwide.
“I would request the Bureau of Immigration officials to no longer allow Chinese, especially those who are coming from Wuhan, to enter our city,” Labella said.
Labella said Cebu City is ready to ban the entry of Chinese nationals if health officials will recommend it to ensure the protection of the city’s residents from the 2019-nCoV.
“We are ready to prevent Chinese tourists from entering the city and of course ask the assistance of police if health authorities would prefer their exclusion within the territorial jurisdiction of the City,” Labella said.
Labella will also call a meeting with officials of the DOH, BI and the Bureau of Quarantine (BoQ) to discuss measures to prevent the spread of the 2019-nCoV along with Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center hospital chief Dr. Gerardo Aquino, Cebu City Medical Center chief Yvonne Feliciano and the heads of the different private hospitals in Cebu City.
“First of all, we have to protect our constituents with the consultations of our health authorities, and we should be ready to prevent Chinese tourists from entering our city,” Labella said.
Chan, on the other hand, is urging the DOH to possibly ban flights from China to prevent the entry of the 2019-nCoV.
The Lapu-Lapu mayor said the DOH has the authority to issue a declaration since the matter is a public health concern.
Chan distributed 15,000 surgical masks and sanitizers at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) for airport employees, who are first to welcome foreign tourists.
As part of the MCIA’s measures against the 2019-nCoV, the BoQ also started to require all passengers of flights to and from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to fill out health declaration cards.
BoQ 7 chief Dr. Terence Anthony Bermejo told SunStar Cebu that the health cards were given to the different airlines on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
“Passengers will fill up the forms before arriving in Cebu,” Bermejo said.
The health cards must be filled out with crucial passenger information such as name of tourist, flight number, name of hotel where the tourist will be staying at, and countries worked, visited and transited in the last 30 days.
Bermejo said leaflets with local numbers which the tourists could call in case they start to feel flu-like symptoms common in nCoV patients will also be distributed at the airport.
“Once they are out of the airport, it will be the Department of Health who will monitor them,” he said.
China has the most number of international flights to Cebu with direct flights to 12 cities in the mainland: Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Kunming, Sichuan and Wenzhou.
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