ILOILO – A total of 292 households in Barangay Bacjawan Sur, Concepcion have been placed under lockdown starting yesterday, April 20, until further notice.
A family tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to Mayor Raul Banias.
He issued an executive order placing the SM Care Village and the Assumpta and Federal Gawad Kalinga villages under granular lockdown.
“We have five COVID-19 positive cases today [April 20] reported by our Municipal Health Office (MHO) and based on the RT-PCR results released by the Sub National Laboratory. The RT-PCR test result of the first case came out last April 17 and results of the four cases was released today, April 20,” read part of the order.
Banias was referring to results of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests conducted to the family.
The mayor added that based on the epidemiological analysis by the town’s COVID Medical Team, the mother – a medical frontliner – was the possible index case.
The COVID-hit family was isolated at a quarantine facility.
ACTIVE CASE DETECTION
“We have started active case detection today and we will have another round tomorrow with augmentation teams from the Provincial Health Office and Hospital Management Office of the province and we also requested support from the Department of Health (DOH) in Region 6,” Banias said.
So far, around 400 close contacts of the index case were identified by the MHO.
“The high number of contacts is due to the fact that the index case administered fluoridization to children in several barangays and primarily in Barangay Bacjawan Sur,” Banias explained.
The mayor has thus urged all close contacts to properly isolate while swabbing is underway.
Moreover, Banias said the LGU prepared food packs to all the affected households including those close contacts in the islands who are now in home isolation.
He also directed the police and all barangay officials and tanods of Bacjawan Sur and the island barangays of Salvacion, Maliogliog, and Dungon to strictly monitor compliance with the protocols brought about by the lockdown and home isolation.
They must also conduct checkpoints at these areas to monitor entry of people.
Likewise, the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams were directed to monitor household members for their medical and vital signs.
As of April 19, Concepcion had 118 total confirmed COVID-19 cases – two were active, 115 have recovered and one died./PN
