ILOILO City – Five personnel of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Region 6 in Barangay Tacas, Jaro district tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), bringing to seven the number of its employees with the illness.
Four of the five personnel were residents of this city while one was a resident of Calinog, Iloilo, according to NIA-6 information officer Steve Cordero.
The NIA-6 office would again be locked down for disinfection.
It was only on Aug. 5 when the office was temporarily closed for decontamination after two personnel tested positive for COVID-19.
Another contact tracing would be launched.
“After nag-positive ang duha ka employees nagpa-schedule (Aug. 10) kami swab sa tanan namon nga skeletal workforce,” said Cordero.
The results were released yesterday, and the five personnel were immediately ordered to observe quarantine.
They were asymptomatic, said Cordero, just like their two other COVID-positive colleagues.
Cordero, however, stressed that these five NIA-6 personnel were not close contacts of the first two employees tested with COVID.
They belonged to different departments of NIA-6, he said.
NIA-6 would reopen after the disinfection, according to Cordero.
People can catch COVID-19 from others who have the virus. The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales.
These droplets also land on objects and surfaces around the person. Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth./PN
