ILOILO – The municipal hall of Estancia town closed its doors to the public for five days beginning yesterday while its offices are being disinfected. Two private personnel of Mayor Melina Requinto tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The town’s latest cases were Requinto’s 56-year-old male personal aide and 33-year-old driver.
Asymptomatic, they were both confined at the town’s quarantine facility.
“It is with a heavy heart that we inform our fellow Estanciahanons that despite our municipality’s extraordinary efforts to combat COVID-19 for the past five months, two of our town mates tested positive for the virus,” read part of the statement of the Estancia Municipal Inter-Agency Task Force.
The personal aide (Patient No. 1307) was a locally stranded individual (LSI) from Metro Manila. He arrived in the municipality on July 19.
On the same day, the driver (Patient No. 1355) fetched Patient No. 1307 in Fort San Pedro in Iloilo City.
Having been exposed to the LSI, the driver was also isolated at the compound of Requinto the next day.
It was only on July 25 when they were subjected to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test.
According to Dr. Greg Rolan Sumile of the Municipal Health Office, the two patients waited for the results while on home quarantine. Their results came out on July 31.
However, before the Department of Health released the test results, Patient No. 1307 was discovered to have “willingly and knowingly” breached the quarantine protocol, according to the municipal task force.
“The patient came in contact with several persons in our municipality thus exposing them to possible infection,” the task force added.
This prompted local authorities to immediately conduct contract tracing.
“Some identified contacts are already isolated in our quarantine facility and will be tested starting tomorrow,” the local task force said.
All other persons who may have come in contact with the infected patient were advised to immediately go into self-isolation. They were also ordered to report to the Municipal Health Office in the town’s Barangay Botongon for testing.
The Department of Interior and Local Government-Iloilo already launched a probe, according to the task force.
It also urged the public not to panic and instead strictly observe health protocols at all times such as social distancing, frequent hand washing and wearing of facemask./PN
