Mayor plans to ban un-vaxxed from malls, government offices

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Unvaccinated individuals might soon find themselves barred from entering public places in Iloilo City.

On Tuesday, Mayor Jerry Treñas announced that they are finalizing an “executive order that will prohibit the unvaccinated from entering the malls, movie houses, restaurants, government offices, and the like.”

This announcement drew mixed reactions from the netizens, with several of them citing that the Iloilo City government should first look at the possible proliferation of fake vaccination cards while others only borrow the vaccination cards of other persons when they are required to present one.

Others welcomed the move hoping that the prohibition will also cover public markets.

But for Facebook user Cecille Baradillo Lagura, she asked that a study should be made on “the percent of population vaccinated to those countries (US, United Kingdom and even Australia) who are experiencing the surge. Majority of their population is already fully vaccinated. How come the surge has still happened??? Also Omicron was first detected to fully vaccinated individuals in Africa. Please please reconsider this!”

Treñas made the announcement as he stressed that “in the wake of the Omicron variant and the infections that the United States, Europe, and even Australia are showing, we need to ramp up vaccination and booster shots to give adequate protection to everyone.”

On Monday, he announced people coming to work or even visit offices of the Iloilo City government must get a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The new rules for in-office employees will take effect Jan 17, 2022.

Treñas said they would ramp up vaccination of the minors 5 to 11 years old “once the proper vaccines are provided to us.

“In the gatherings leading to the new year please observe the minimum health protocols – wearing of face masks, social distancing, and frequent hand washing. We cannot be overly protective of ourselves and our loved ones during these times,” he said.

Iloilo City is not the first city to consider the ban.

In Quezon City, the city government announced October 2021 that shoppers will be asked for their COVID vaccination cards if they want to access all shops and services in malls.

Unvaccinated persons will still be allowed entry but only to obtain grocery services and go to medical and drug stores, and avail government services.

In the last two weeks, Iloilo City registered single digit COVID cases with four as the highest that was recorded on December 14 and 15.

Three cases were recorded on December 13 and 17 while two on December 16, 18, 22, 23, and 27.

A single case was registered on December 21 and 25 and zero case on December 19, 20, and 26.

As of December 16, Iloilo City reached 123.59 percent coverage of fully vaccinated individuals.