BY MATÉ ESPINA
AUTHORITIES labelled it mere complacency. I call it downright negligence that led to the temporary closure of Transcom, a BPO company here in Bacolod City that reported an outbreak of COVID-19 cases over the weekend.
One has to give it to the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) that is in-charge of monitoring and controlling the spread of the coronavirus. Despite the arrivals of hundreds of returning residents during the holiday season, we didn’t have a significant rise in COVID-19 cases.
EOC chair and City Administrator Em Ang said that because of their “proactive action,” we have recorded single digit cases, at times even zero, for the month of January until the bombshell last weekend when a single company recorded 41 cases.
And that may not be the end of it as swabbing and contact tracing of those who tested positive are ongoing. It all started when an employee manifested COVID symptoms last Jan. 18. When his test came back, it was positive, along with two other co-employees. From then on, positive results from others came back on a daily basis.
It was over the weekend when 16 results came back positive and another 11 last Sunday that the EOC announced an outbreak and closed the establishment temporarily.
Em said the swab teams worked till the wee hours of the morning to test almost 600 close contacts of the positives and they will continue working this week to swab the household members and outside contacts of the patients.
We should not be surprised of the spread because BPO employees are cocooned in an enclosed environment and standard booth size per employee is normally two meters apart or so.
But that can be avoided if proper protocols are being followed. Unfortunately, management was wrong in so many levels. And yes, I blame the management more than the employees because implementation of protocols are their responsibility and in any setting, the employees are given no option but to follow or otherwise face sanctions.
Worse, Em said that management even allowed an employee to report to work even after getting COVID-19 positive lab results.
Contact tracing was also a nightmare because while Transcom signed up for the Bacolod Contact Tracing (BacTrac) system, they have not implemented the same in their establishment as according to Em, the system had no log-in history.
“We had to do it manually,” Em said which of course spells mobilizing more manpower to ensure a fast contact tracing procedure and extraction of positive patients.
BacTrac was required for all establishments and residents and those who are simply visiting or transacting business in Bacolod even for the day. There are establishments that will refuse entry to anyone who does not have a BacTrac ID with your own personal QR code. Of course there are some who have yet to implement the same despite threats of penalty from the city government.
But then, people will always try to circumvent the law especially if the penalty against erring establishments are at a laughable rate of P1,000 on the first offense to as much as P5,000 on the third offense.
Clearly, Transcom couldn’t care less to be penalized P1,000. But a temporary closure is a bitter pill to swallow for management because a couple of days of missed operation spells tens of thousands of dollars for a BPO company that is as big as Transcom.
More than that, if I am Transcom’s client and I will learn that the temporary closure was because of sheer irresponsibility, I will not think twice of pulling out my business.
As of this publication, Transcom will probably be back on operation mode since under the law, one can legally shut down operations for only 24 hours and that must include disinfection of the establishment.
Em issued a warning to all establishments and the public that “we must not be complacent because we are not yet out of the woods. We must continue to follow protocols for our own safety and that of others until we have the vaccines.”
Following a flak from the public for imposing curfew and the continuous liquor ban, Em said those were placed for a reason.
The drop in cases have clearly resulted in complacency among the public as there have been reports of merry-making sans mask such as that controversial foam party at the beach. However, Em was right in issuing that warning for until we can implement mass vaccination, nobody is safe and the least we can do is to be responsible enough to keep ourselves and others free from the virus.
The BPO industry has been fired upon by the public early on in the pandemic when another company also had an outbreak. This new incident is expected to trigger another outcry but I hope it is not directed against the agents but the management who are liable for this big mess.
The city must review their sanctions against such establishments for while they are operating locally, they must be viewed as a multi-national and therefore, must be penalized higher./PN
