BACOLOD City – The city government’s General Services Office (GSO) temporarily suspended its operation yesterday.
One of its employees got infected with the virus SARS-CoV-2 which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Patient No. 794 was a 39-year-old male resident of Barangay Tangub. He was part of the city’s new COVID-19 infections that the Department of Health confirmed Tuesday afternoon, bringing Bacolod’s total COVID-19 cases to 92.
Jerome Solinap, GSO head, said the patient was assigned to clean the Bacolod Respiratory Outpatient (BRO) Center.
At least 16 GSO employees, including Solinap, had exposure to the patient. They were all placed under home quarantine and were subjected to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing.
While conducting office-wide disinfection, Solinap said the GSO will have a skeletal workforce while waiting for their test results.
Meanwhile, the city’s New Government Center (NGC) will be temporarily closed today.
In an advisory, the Office of the Building Administrator announced that the closure will pave way for disinfection. NGC will resume operation on Wednesday.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia also ordered the closure of the city borders here to travelers from the neighboring islands of Panay and Guimaras to sustain stringent protocols against the spread COVID-19.
“We are closing our borders to passengers coming in from Iloilo City, Province of Iloilo, and the whole of Panay, including Guimaras effective 11:59 p.m. (Tuesday),” Leonardia announced.
Mayor Jerry Treñas earlier declared that Iloilo City will ban the entry of persons from Negros Island, including Bacolod City, and provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental effective July 22 “due to the rising number cases of COVID-19 infections.”
Leonardia said the city government is adhering to the recommendation of Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19.
“We will relay the advice of the NTF chief implementer to all concerned and surely we will give it due course. We know Secretary Galvez is in a strategic position to see the actual picture of our fight against COVID-19,” Leonardia said./PN
