BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – A total of 700 households in Barangay Bug-ang, Toboso, Negros Occidental were placed on a weeklong lockdown after eight residents tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The index case was a personnel of the Department of Education, according to Mayor Richard Jaojoco.
After a contact tracing, her husband, mother and two children also tested positive for the virus.
Another contact tracing followed and three relatives were also found infected.
Jaojoco said the town was ordered locked down by the local Inter-Agency Task Force because “some residents refused to undergo swabbing.”
“Some are also denying that they had close contacts with those who initially tested positive,” Jaojoco added.
The municipal government will only allow essential transactions. Only one member of each household will be issued an “essential pass”.
Jaojoco said the municipal government would provide 10 kilos of rice and 10 canned goods per household.
He believed the rise in COVID-19 cases in the town in the last two weeks may be caused by “a new variant” spreading very fast.
He added that in the municipal hall, there were two positive cases at the Mayor’s Office, three from the police station and two from the Army.
Contact tracing was ongoing.
Jaojoco said he underwent swab testing over the weekend after being exposed to his executive assistant who was positive of the virus.
“My result was negative,” he said./PN