SAN JOSE, Antique – Eleven of the 29 staff members of the provincial disaster risk reduction and management (PDRRM) office were placed on quarantine after they were exposed to a close contact of a confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient.
PDRRM officer Broderick Train said one of his staff members was the wife of a Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) personnel assigned in Anini-y town and confirmed to be COVID-19-positive.
The husband was assigned at the municipal hall for the one-stop-shop program for the assessment and payment of business permits and tricycle franchise.
Upon the advice of the Integrated Provincial Health Office, those with exposure to the wife of the BFP personnel would have to undergo quarantine.
The PDRRMO staff started quarantining in their isolation office on Jan. 7. But others opted for home quarantine while waiting for the result of their tests.
“We learned that the result of the laboratory examination at the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao, Iloilo City takes about three to five days to be released. So we opted to have it in a private hospital so that we would know immediately the result,” Train said.
Anini-y’s Mayor Maxfil Policar advised those who transacted business at the one-stop-shop to monitor their health status and inform the barangay health emergency response teams if they develop symptoms of COVID-19.
Policar also temporarily suspended the one-stop-shop.
The BFP personnel was admitted to the Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital here.
His case is considered a local transmission because he had no prior travel outside Antique.
His wife, meanwhile, is on facility quarantine while waiting for her laboratory result. (PNA/PN)
