LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government cited the various sectors in the municipality for their continuing cooperation and compliance to the implementation of the stringent health and safety protocols that helped contain the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the locality.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda reported that the municipal government, in partnership with concerned government agencies, is striving to contain the spread of the deadly virus in the municipality to avoid possible outbreaks in certain areas and prevent the clustering of the new COVID-19 variant.
He said that the sudden spike in confirmed 65 COVID cases in the Benguet provincial, including 61 inmates and 4 jail guards, is under control as contact tracers and health workers immediately worked double time to contain the further spread of the virus among the inmates.
The municipal chief executive claimed that even the recent outbreak of the virus in some offices of the municipal government had been controlled because of the timely implementation of the hard lockdown in the municipal hall, coupled with the aggressive disinfection in the different offices, trading post and a number of public places.
Mayor Salda disclosed that the municipal government is managing well the remaining over 100 active cases in the municipality following the recovery of the more than 1,500 patients over the past several months, but the sad news is that there were 33 COVID-related reported deaths.
According to him, the sustained cooperation and compliance of the public to the basic health and safety protocols remains the main weapon against contracting the virus while awaiting the arrival of the municipality’s share of the vaccines from the national government.
He expressed his gratitude to the business establishments operating in the municipality for their strict implementation of the prescribed health and safety protocols among their customers that contributed to the containment of the spread of the virus in the town, thus, they must continue doing so because this contributes in the effective and efficient management of the virus as a major safety measure to avoid clustering of cases and outbreaks in certain areas.
Earlier, the municipal government created the Health and Safety Protocols Monitoring Team headed by Vice Mayor Roderick Awingan to ensure the compliance of businesses to the implementation of the prescribed protocols with various teams organized to continue conducting weekly inspections of the different establishments to ensure that they are not letting their guards down.
Awingan stipulated that based on the assessment of these teams, business establishments have a 95-percent compliance rate to the health and safety protocols crafted by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases. By HENT