ILOILO – From 34 on Thursday, the number of public market vendors infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Banate town further rose to 53.
Just this Friday, 19 more vendors there were found to be carriers of the viral illness.
According to Mayor Carlos Cabangal Jr., these new cases – all asymptotic – were tested through reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
The patients were brought to the town’s quarantine facility in Sitio Bantud, Barangay Carmelo.
More or less 300 vendors have been swabbed since Tuesday when authorities detected the first two infections in the market.
Cabangal allayed the fears of his constituents. Health authorities, he said, already tracked down all close contacts of the positive cases. They were instructed to observe strict home quarantine while under monitoring by the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams.
But according to the mayor, they implemented a symptom-based approach in swabbing these close contacts. Only those manifesting COVID-19 symptoms like fever, body pains and sore throat would be mandated to have their specimens tested.
To recall, the surge of COVID-19 infection prompted Cabangal to impose a surgical extreme enhanced community quarantine at the public market for three days beginning Feb. 16.
Today is the expected end of the stringent quarantine measure with vendors allowed to reopen their stalls.
But Cabangal made it clear the reopening comes with strict safety health protocols./PN