460 Cebu councilors exposed to COVID-19?

CEBU, Philippines —  At least 460 city and municipal councilors in Cebu who attended the recent convention of the Philippine Councilors League (PCL) in Pasay City may have been exposed to the highly contagious coronavirus disease (COVID-19) after one of the over 17,000 delegates across the country tested positive of the virus.

The 65-year-old councilor from Negros Oriental was the first elected official in the country to have contracted the disease. He is currently confined at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Silliman Medical Center in Dumaguete City for severe pneumonia.

Dr. Jaime Bernadas, regional director of the Department of Health in Central Visayas, said the councilor is in critical condition because he is immunocompromised being a post-kidney transplant patient.

Dr. Shelbay Blanco, chief of the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU), admitted in a press conference yesterday that some of the councilors in Cebu are listed as persons under monitoring (PUM) because of their possible contact with the patient from Negros Oriental.

He refused to reveal how many of the 460 councilors are on the list but said there are 125 PUMs in Central Visayas. The DOH said there are also 53 persons under investigation (PUIs), 47 of them are in the hospital while five are on “self-isolation.” 

The DOH said they are already conducting contract tracing of the people who may have interacted with the councilor from Negros Oriental.

Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, PCL Central Visayas chairperson, downplayed as an isolated case their colleague’s contracting the virus after the convention.  Garcia said the patient may have acquired the infection after the convention because he allegedly stayed behind for few days to visit his relatives in Greenhills, San Juan.

 “We think nga his infection was not during the PCL Convention but after na when he visited family and friends,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the PCL national leadership is already looking into who are the other members who stayed behind after the convention and who were those who stayed in the same hotel with him.

Garcia also dismissed the possibility of the members of Cebu delegation to submit to COVID-19 test and self-quarantine.

"Dumaguete lang sa. As of now, I don't see the need to conduct contact tracing for Cebu councilors kay wala man sad gyud mi niadto sa venue," Garcia said.

He explained that the Cebu City councilors did not anymore go to the convention venue after the PCL election was postponed.

"Wala mi naka adto sa venue kay nagkagubot naman ang conduct sa election. So, wala gyud nahinayon ang election. We only stayed in the hotel separate from the venue," Garcia said.

    Garcia also said that none of the delegates from Cebu have reported any symptoms of the virus.

PCL Cebu Chapter President Francis Salimbangon also said that none of his members has reported exhibiting symptoms of the disease.

“So far so good wala man tay balita or nagpahibawo na lungsod nga naa silay symptoms nga mga konsehales,” Salimbangon said.

 Like Garcia, Salimbangon also believes that what happened to the councilor from Negros Oriental was an isolated case.

The PCL national executive board has encouraged all its members to remain calm. The PCL said the convention was held in close coordination with the DOH and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The league claimed that precautionary measures such as checking of body temperatures were implemented during the event. DOH representatives were likewise present and provided a comprehensive lecture about the COVID-19 on the first day of the convention.  FPL  (FREEMAN)