By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – Another frontliner in Negros Occidental was infected with the coronavirus disease or Covid-19 through local transmission.
The 26-year-old male patient from Pontevedra town is the second frontliner to be infected and the second as well through local transmission.
Pontevedra Mayor Jose Maria Alonso placed the entire Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO) team in isolation.
Alonso also said 125 households in Pontevedra were locked down.
Earlier, an ambulance driver of the Negros Occidental Provincial DRRMO who transports COVID positive repatriates from their hotels to the quarantine facilities was also infected with the virus through local transmission.
Twenty members of the Pontevedra DRRMO and two nurses who were exposed to the 26-year-old frontliner are in isolation and awaiting their RT-PCR test results.
Alonso said that police officers and firefighters of Pontevedra will carry out DRRMO functions while the personnel are in isolation.
Meanwhile, portions of five Bacolod City barangays were sealed off due to the presence of COVID-19 positive patients.
Dr. Grace Tan, spokesperson of the city’s Inter-Agency Task Force against coronavirus, said these areas are in barangays Mandalagan, Mansilingan, Tangub, Pahanocoy, and Singcang-Airport.
Barangay Captain Rosinie Distrito of Singcang-Airport said they locked down an apartment being rented by an authorized person outside of residence (APOR), who came from Cebu.
Distrito said the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team and the Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office informed them of his condition.
He said the male person was transferred to a quarantine facility of the city, together with three of his roommates in the apartment.
Their company did not coordinate with the city and the barangay regarding the health condition of the patient, who underwent swab test in the province, Distrito said.
He said that as a safety precaution, they sealed off the apartment where the group was renting a room in Purok Magayon behind the Girl Scout Building and just below the flyover.
Barangay 1 Captain Cesar Rellos said they have about 10 COVID-19 positive patients in their barangay, but he had sent all of them to the city’s quarantine facilities.
