SAN JOSE, Antique – Gov. Rhodora Cadiao urged villages in this province to help municipal governments accommodate returning residents by establishing their own coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quarantine facilities.
She made the call through the 18 Liga ng mga Barangay presidents, hoping all chairmen of the 590 villages will also assist in this one.
“It would still take time (before) we could have the vaccine against COVID-19 and we still have locally stranded individuals (LSIs) coming home. It would be best that there will be barangay isolation facilities for them,” she said during their meeting held at the Binirayan gymnasium here on July 7.
LSIs and overseas Filipino workers who could no longer be accommodated at the municipal government’s isolation facilities will stay in the barangay isolation facilities.
Deo Cortejo, who represented the Department of the Interior and Local Government provincial office during the meeting, said the role of village captains is not only to establish isolation facilities but also to manage these with the help of their Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams.
“The BHERT will have to monitor twice every day the body temperature of the persons under quarantine,” he said, adding that early detection of COVID-19 signs and symptoms is important.
All 18 municipalities of this province currently use the schools owned by the Department of Education as quarantine centers. However, local government units (LGUs) are only allowed to use these until July 15.
In preparation, other towns have already converted their municipal gyms or municipal-owned buildings as isolation centers.
As of Tuesday, this province has 18 COVID-19 recoveries, two active cases and no death recorded. (With a report from PNA/PN)
