IlOILO City – Court hearings and other transactions at the Chief Justice Ramon Q. Avanceña Hall of Justice were temporarily suspended beginning Friday until the weekend. A job hire tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Judge Victorino Maniba Jr., Hall of Justice spokesperson, said the closure was a precautionary measure.
It would give them time to disinfect the edifice and launch contact tracing, he said.
Maniba, however, did not disclose the circumstance as to how the job hire contracted the viral illness.
“We cannot give more information at the moment. Wala hearing only for today. Lunes balik na,” said Maniba.
COVID-19 is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has transferred to humans from animals.
The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
According to the WHO, about 80 percent of people who get COVID-19 experience a mild case – about as serious as a regular cold – and recover without needing any special treatment.
There are a total of 1,839 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Western Visayas, data from the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 showed as of as of Aug. 7.
In a virtual presser, Dr. Renilyn Reyes, spokesperson of DOH-6, said the region recorded 46 new positive cases to bring the total active cases to 896 while 65 recoveries raised the number of treated individuals to 917.
The new positive cases were composed of 12 cases each from Bacolod City, Negros Occidental and Iloilo City; five from Iloilo province; four from Capiz; and one from Antique.
Of the 46 cases, 37 were asymptomatic, six have influenza-like illness and three have severe acute respiratory infection.
Eleven of the new cases were returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs), nine were locally stranded individuals and 26 were local cases.
“For the past five days, we already have 136 local cases,” she said.
Meantime, of the region’s 896 active cases – 610 were locally stranded individuals, ROFs and authorized persons outside of residence; and 286 local cases.
Almost half of the local active cases or 130 were in Bacolod City, 88 from Iloilo City, 36 from Negros Occidental, 29 from Iloilo province, two from Capiz, and one from Antique./PN
