BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The head of the Provincial Budget Management Office (PBMO) became the latest Negros Occidental official to contract coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19.)
Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz said the officer-in-charge had a fever last Wednesday. The official then submitted herself for testing Friday and the result was released the following day showing she got infected with the viral illness.
Diaz quoted the PBMO official as saying that a few days before falling ill, they celebrated the first death anniversary of a family member. A prayer service was held in their house.
During the gathering, five elder women visited and it is now suspected that either five of them was the virus carrier.
Aside for the budget official, her brother-in-law also tested positive for COVID-19 although the rest of her family, servants and fellow employees tested negative.
The official was also one of the office heads summoned last week during the budget hearings at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session hall.
Those who attended were also swabbed and most of them tested negative for COVID-19.
Diaz said they were still waiting for more results, and the session hall had already been decontaminated.
Contact tracing was launched by the Provincial Health Office (PHO). It is also searching for the five women who attended the prayer gathering.
Diaz, meanwhile, reminded the public not to unnecessarily invite outsiders into their houses.
“Think twice before you invite them at home for whatever reasons, especially during wakes,” he added./PN