City locks down bank

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City Government has closed down a bank after 12 employees tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), says Councilor Joel Garganera.

Garganera, deputy chief implementer of Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the city, said the 12 bank employees along with seven locally stranded individuals (LSIs) were among the 39 additional cases recorded last Wednesday, September 9.

"Karon bangko is one of the essential establishments. I believe they should devise or think of something not only to protect their clients but also their employees aron dili sad maputol ang ilang serbisyo (to avoid disruption of their service)," said Garganera.

He said the patients were already extracted and the necessary contact tracing were made. Although the city logged a relatively high number of cases last Wednesday, Garganera explained the positivity rate was only four percent.

He said there were 1,006 individuals who have undergone the swab testing from at least 18 barangays and only 39 tested positive. Nevertheless, Garganera said he was not happy of the result.

"But just the same, wala ko malipay ani. The more na this is a message to all of us, especially the business establishment karon na they have to mitigate the risk in opening, in running their businesses karon," said Garganera.

Garganera pointed out that the transmission of the virus from outside of the household was at 65 percent on Wednesday.

"Mao man gyud ni ang among gikuyawan. Matud pa sa World Health Organization, the first two weeks when a particular LGU (local government unit) downgraded its quarantine status, mo-experience gyud ta og spike," Garganera said.

The city’s quarantine status has been downgraded to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) for the rest of September. Garganera admitted that the increase in the number of cases is possible due to the easing up of the quarantine protocols.

He is also expecting that the 39 new cases last Wednesday would be multiplied due to the exposure of the family members.

"Expect gyud nga cases will rise because from experience, og naa gani usa ka individual nagpositive sa usa ka balay bisan pa'g na-extract na na siya, the exposure sa mga family members or household members diha to that particular positive individual, naa na. When you talk about niani, dako gyud kaayo'g posibilidad nga mosaka pud ni siya once the result of those that have been swabbed sa first generation mogawas na," said Garganera.

"Based on the result karon, the tendency is it's gonna rise. I just hope and pray nga nadali to sila nato  pag-extract, na wala kaayo sila makatransmit," he added.

Community surveillance

Meanwhile, Garganera said the EOC has started a community surveillance project to enhance contact tracing since it is vital that "we have to hunt COVID, we have to find COVID, and we have to chase COVID."

He said they have formulated ways to address problems in the densely populated barangays and identifying areas where convergence is most likely to happen.

The councilor said they are already coordinating with the Department of Health and experts to guide them in the program.

"Dili ta magpaabot nga naay nagpositibo diha in order to give us a reason to go there. But we really do it on our own nga i-assess nato ang situation, ang area, ang footprints, ang activity. We will be doing our surveillance. I think that will be happening within the week," said Garganera. — FPL (FREEMAN)