BY MATÉ ESPINA
THE CALL to disband the current composition of the National Inter Agency Task Force (NIATF) is gaining ground for the increasing COVID-19 cases nationwide, to the vaccine purchase or none thereof, and now to the failure of Resolution 101.
From Metro Manila, which is now under lockdown even if they like to call it in a fancier name – “the bubble,” to the provinces that are seeing an increasing trend of infection, there is great disappointment, to say the least, of how the NIATF has been managing this pandemic.
In strong words, Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator, Atty. Ray Diaz slammed Resolution 101 as a “failure” after the discovery of eight fake RT-PCR tests with negative results were used by locally stranded individuals in coming home.
Diaz said they are now investigating this modus and they have screenshots of these tests being sold at the point of origin for P900 to as much as P1,200.
Prior to Resolution 101, even those with negative results go through mandatory testing upon arrival at airports and ports but this provision has been abolished by the new NIATF order. Despite that, the provincial government continued to provide a desk at points of entry for voluntary testing and this has resulted to the capture of new cases we have in Negros Occidental, mostly from LSIs.
It is quite disconcerting that people still resort to this illegal purchase of fake RT-PCR results but I guess, in desperation to go home and the steep cost of getting tested, coupled with the fast spread of the virus in Metro Manila anew, some are forced to deal with unscrupulous traders of fake results.
At present, Negros Occidental has 276 active cases and 135 for Bacolod City. The province reported 18 new cases while Bacolod recorded 19 new cases.
Thursday, the head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Team, Zeaphard Caelian along with his three employees, tested positive and will be moved to the Mambukal Resort for isolation.
In a radio interview, Zeaphard said he was scheduled for vaccination yesterday and as part of the pre-vaccination process, he got swabbed. He was asymptomatic along with his staff and were re-tested again, and still came out positive.
Because Zeaphard is in the thick of the COVID situation in the province, his positive results triggered a granular lockdown of the Provincial Capitol yesterday and the isolation of Gov. Bong Lacson and Diaz, along with several personnel at the governor’s office because of their exposure to the Disaster chair.
Diaz said the provincial government will also temporarily halt the processing of the S-Pass of travellers who want to go home as the entire Provincial Incident Management Team tasked to process these documents will have to go on quarantine as well.
Meanwhile, the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center also announced that an administrative officer in one of the hospitals here tested positive for COVID-19 and that the said official has attended several social gatherings before manifesting symptoms.
A medical consultant, a nurse and a radiologic technician at Riverside Medical Center are also among those who resulted positive recently.
The EOC once again issued a call to the public to avoid social gatherings or dining out with people who are not members of the same household to avoid another spike in cases.
In southern Negros, Kabankalan City Mayor Pedro Zayco also went on quarantine after an employee of their City Health Office tested positive last Thursday. The mayor said he attended a meeting with the employee present recently.
To set an example for the 14 others who were in that meeting, Zayco had himself tested and though his results came out negative, he will follow protocol and isolate himself for two weeks just to be safe.
Zayco also pointed out that the lifting of mandatory testing upon arrival and placing travellers on quarantine until their local RT-PCR test results come out seems to have caused the increase in COVID cases locally.
The mayor said three Tagalog-speaking travellers who got tested in Bacolod City, stayed in a boarding house in Kabankalan recently. Their test results came out positive and when they tested the landlady of the establishment where these three stayed, she also resulted positive along with another relative.
In northern Cadiz City, the City Hall is also temporarily closed after eight employees including policemen tested positive last Thursday. This brings to 27 active cases in Cadiz, 19 of whom are arrivals from Manila and Cebu.
Meanwhile, Escalante Mayor Melecio “Biboy” Yap was among the mayors who were called out for violating the vaccine priority list when he had himself inoculated last week.
Mayor Biboy said got vaccinated with Sinovac as a “call of duty” to convince health workers that it is okay and safe to get inoculated. He added that he is ready to go to jail or pay a fine for bypassing the line.
Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia and barangay captains here were also ready for a much-publicized vaccination of LGU heads when the event was aborted following clarification from national agencies that the supposed approval of LGU heads to be in the priority list, as announced by Mayor Bing as head of League of Cities in the Philippines, was not yet recognized by the DOH./PN
