BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN AND CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The offices of the vice-governor and board members, as well as the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session hall located at the southwing of the Provincial Capitol building in Bacolod City were placed on lockdown yesterday as precautionary measures, after a member of the staff of a board member tested positive for Covid-19, Vice-Governor Jeffrey Ferrer said.
Ferrer said that his office and the offices of the board members and the SP session hall will be temporarily closed for disinfection, maybe for a week, if there is no infection among other SP staff members.
But Ferrer said that it is business as usual for the legislative and administrative offices located at the basement of the Capitol south wing.
The technical staff of the board member is the fourth Capitol employee who tested positive for Covid-19, as of this time.
Contact tracing is now ongoing on the infected Capitol employee, who is asymptomatic, Ferrer said.
With this development, Ferrer said the SP regular session being held every Tuesday will be conducted online, starting today.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said yesterday that the technical staff member who tested positive for Covid-19 reported last for duty at the SP on July 24, before their residential compound in Bacolod City was locked down July 27.
IN BACOLOD
Thirty houses in Purok Ramon Magsaysay, Brgy. 14 in Bacolod City were also placed under lockdown yesterday after a barangay kagawad and two other residents tested positive for the coronavirus disease, Barangay Captain Karl John Magno said.
Magno said they received the positive results of the kagawad and his sister Sunday while that of the 64-year-old job order employee under the Public Order and Safety Office (POSO), who is assigned to the Bacolod Arts, Youth and Sports (BAYS) Center was made known to them yesterday.
He said the kagawad, who is in his 50s, is a jewelry broker while his younger sister is a nursing aid in a private hospital. Both were confined in the hospital on July 24 but their swab results were released only Sunday. Eight other members of their household were moved to a quarantine center yesterday and will be subjected to swab testing.
Magno said the kagawad had recurring fever and was coughing but has now recovered. However, he was advised by the doctor to undergo another swab test. He has no travel history.
They have sealed off 20 houses in the eastern portion of the barangay where the house of the siblings is located, he said.
Magno added that they also sealed off 10 houses in the western portion of the barangay, including those inside the compound where the POSO employee lives.
The POSO employee is asymptomatic and all three Covid-19 positive patients have no travel history, he said.
They will have the barangay scheduled for disinfection, Magno added.*
