ILOILO City – Local government units (LGUs) in Iloilo province should scale up their testing capacity for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to cover healthcare workers exposed to infected patients.
City Councilor Candice Magdalane Tupas underscored this in her privileged speech at the regular session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod yesterday.
According to Tupas, it reached her attention that some municipalities were disallowing healthcare workers to be tested even if they were exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 positive individual in their workplace in the city.
The lady councilor even received messages through Facebook asking if Iloilo City has the capacity and whether the city’s protocol covers testing those with exposure to COVID-19 positive patients should they be from the same or from other local government units.
From what she had gathered, Tupas said LGUs only swab locally stranded individuals or overseas Filipino workers.
Normally, healthcare workers are required to quarantine for 14 days and wait until the employers get them tested, she added.
“But in governance, isn’t it that we offer our services to all residents because they are all governed and without considering their place of work?” Tupas lamented.
She urged residents from other LGUs who work in the city and who have been exposed to a COVID-19 positive patient “to be isolated as soon as possible just to make sure the transmission of disease through public transportation or workplace is avoided.”
Meanwhile, Tupas filed a resolution commending Mayor Jerry Treñas and the Iloilo City COVID-19 Task Force and Swab Team for a “job well done.”
She cited the swift and efficient action for swab testing, isolating and contact tracing among the city hall employees and officials.
“It’s truly remarkable to have such a widespread and truly effective campaign against COVID 19,” Tupas said.
Though in six months and a half in quarantine and seven months in pandemic, she said the statistics were not getting any better.
“In Iloilo City, we were able to delay the transmission of infection through effective strategies enforced by our local government like the enhanced community quarantine, and with strict border controls from areas with high rates of transmissions yet COVID-19 could not be stopped and eventually hit the homes of Ilonggos. The city hall also suffered a hit,” she noted.
According to the councilor, the resolution was just to appreciate and be thankful to the mayor, the Iloilo City COVID Task Force and the swab team for enduring a rigorous contact tracing.
“Just like my fellow councilors, I made sure I followed their system and regulations, would it be swift, would it be chaotic. The testing was swift, contact tracing and isolation was swift and systematic. This is indeed effective since mass testing aims to find people with active infection who are asymptomatic so that they can be quarantined and rapid tracing and testing of close contacts can interrupt the spread,” she said./PN
