24 Navotas government employees get COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco has placed the city hall under lockdown following an outbreak of COVID-19 among its employees.

Tiangco said 24 employees of the city government have tested positive for COVID-19.

He issued an executive order on Tuesday, placing the entire city hall building and its annexes in Barangay Sipac Almacen on lockdown until Feb. 28.

City hall is closed for transactions during the duration of the lockdown, Tiangco said.

The city epidemiology and surveillance unit conducted contact tracing to determine the presence of clustered cases.

Tiango ordered all city hall employees to undergo swab tests.

He said a skeletal workforce would be deployed to work on the payroll and disinfect the city hall.

As of Tuesday, there were 5,894 COVID-19 cases in Navotas with 5,503 recoveries, 189 deaths and 202 active cases.