ILOILO City – The Chief Justice Ramon Q. Avanceña Hall of Justice here is on lockdown today for disinfection.
A court officer or personnel tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Around 27 close contacts of the index case have been traced, said Jeck Conlu, spokesperson of the city government’s COVID-19 Team.
They were swabbed yesterday and their specimens would be analyzed through reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Ma. Yolanda M. Panaguiton-Gaviño issued yesterday Memorandum 31-2020 to all judges, the Public Attorney’s Office regional director, and other heads of offices at the Hall of Justice regarding the disinfection of the whole building today, Nov. 27, beginning at 9 a.m. All work is suspended.
The memo was, however, silent on the identity of the court officer or personnel who tested positive for COVID-19.
The disinfection will be undertaken by Iloilo City government personnel.
Panaguiton-Gaviño also ordered the head of offices to secure their records.
There should be one personnel available to oversee the disinfection of each office or court, she added.
Sources told Panay News the index case was a judge currently confined in a hospital.
Just this September, the Hall of Justice was shut down after a lawyer who attended court hearings tested positive for COVID-19.
The COVID-19-positive lawyer was a male senior citizen. He was hospitalized.
In Aug. 7, court hearings and other transactions at the Hall of Justice were also temporarily suspended. A job hire tested positive for COVID-19.
The Hall of Justice houses 18 branches of Regional Trial Court (RTC), four branches of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) of Iloilo City, the Iloilo Provincial Prosecution Offices, the Iloilo City Provincial Prosecution Offices, Office of the Regional Prosecutor, Public Attorney’s Office, and Regional Parole and Probation Offices, Offices of the Clerks of Court of RTC and MTCC, Office of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Iloilo Chapter, the Philippine Mediation Center, and RTC library./PN