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Baguio City (CNN Philippines, February 7) — The highland towns of Atok in Benguet province and Tinglayan in Kalinga have temporarily closed tourist attractions as part of heightened precautions against the novel coronavirus.
The local government of Atok has suspended all tourism activities in the municipality, which is home to a number of flower farms such as the Northern Blossom Flower Farm and Haight’s Place, which have been attracting local and foreign tourists.
Atok Mayor Raymundo Sarac ordered the temporary closure of these farms starting February 6 until further notice amid the outbreak of the new coronavirus called 2019-nCoV.
Meanwhile, Tinglayan Mayor Sacrament Gumilab early this week directed all local policemen and barangay officials to put up checkpoints especially in Barangay Buscalan “to ban all tourists from entering the municipality.”
Tourists come to the remote village of Buscalan to meet Apo Whang-od, the Philippines’ oldest mambabatok or traditional Kalinga tattoo artist. The municipal government of Tinglayan has also set up a task force to prevent the spread of nCoV.
The Department of Health said there is no confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in the Cordillea region, but a total of four people are “under investigation” for possible infection – two from Benguet, and one each from Mountain Province and Baguio City.
Baguio, also known as the country’s summer capital because of its cold weather, earlier canceled the opening parade of this year’s Panagbenga Festival and other crowd-drawing events.
There are now three confirmed cases of the nCov in the Philippines – all of them Chinese visitors. One of them, a 44-year-old man, died due to acute respiratory disease caused by the virus.
People with a history of travel from Wuhan, a Chinese city where the virus originated, and those who had contact with infected people are considered “persons under investigation” especially if they show influenza-like symptoms such as fever, cough, and cold. The Department of Health is awaiting test results of 127 persons under investigation.
The new coronavirus has killed more than 630 people mostly in China and infected more than 31,400 people across 25 countries and territories.
