The Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD6) has identified four barangays, four municipalities, and three health facilities in the region, including Negros Occidental and Bacolod City, with clustering of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.
Dr. Jessie Glen Alonsabe said Wednesday that there is clustering if there are “two or more cases in two successive weeks in a particular barangay or municipality.”
Alonsabe said the clustering could be a close contact of a positive case, members of a family, or co-workers.
In his situational report, he identified the clustering of cases in barangays Matab-ang, Talisay City, Bi-ao, Binalbagan, and Cabadiangan, Himamaylan, all in Negros Occidental, and Pajo in Lambunao, Iloilo.
For health facilities, the clustering was at the Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod City, and St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo and Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Iloilo City.
“It’s much easier to manage those in clusters because it’s very easy for them to do the lockdown,” he said.
If they belong in one household, then they will just be confined in their household, if co-workers, then the selected workplace can be locked down, he added.
Dr. Sophia Pulmones, the DOH spokesperson, said the inter-agency task force resolution allows local government units to implement localized or partial lockdowns where there are clustering of cases.
She added that once the confirmed cases have completed their 14-day quarantine and remain asymptomatic or symptomatic but have been declared as symptoms free for the past three days, then the patient can already be tagged as recovered.
“The individual will be reintegrated into the community,” she said.*PNA
