THE local government of Sison has bemoaned The PUNCH’S headline news last week that the town is already the “new epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic”.

In a statement dated Nov. 16 posted in its official Facebook page, it said that the actual situation in the municipality of Sison is far from the grim picture the news attempted to illustrate.

Out of the 80 cases attributed to the municipality of Sison, “only 19 can be fairly considered as local cases”, it said.

It added that the rest are workers of a private construction company which currently has a project in Barangay Labayug and who were housed in the company barracks inside a fenced compound in the said barangay.

It said that while they are not residents of Sison, their statistics as active COVID -19 cases are recorded to that of Sison owing to the prevailing protocol being implemented by the health authorities. The protocol states that an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 shall be recorded and attributed to the municipality or city where he stayed for the last two weeks at the time of his infection even though he is not actually a resident of the said local government unit, it added.

All the 61 workers of the private construction company, except the few ones who were initially found COVID-19 positive and isolated in the facility of the municipal government, were already in isolation in different facilities at the first sign of infection, and by the time they were tested positive for COVID-19 they were already in isolation facilities, it also said.

Thus while they tested positive for COVID-19, the risk that they have infected other people in the municipality of Sison has been greatly reduced since they were already in isolation beforehand, the statement said.

“This, however, does not mean that we should be complacent. All the more, we need to be vigilant in protecting ourselves and preventing the transmission of COVID-19   in our municipality, given the situation in Barangay Labayug,” it stressed.

The statement also pointed out that in consonance with its corporate social responsibility, the private construction company agreed to the initiative of the Municipal Inter Agency Task Force to have their remaining employees removed from their fenced compound housing the workers’ barracks at Barangay Labayug for proper isolation and health monitoring. To date, the remainder of the 377 workers had all been transported and isolated in various facilities of the company in Metro Manila.

The barracks the workers left vacant at Barangay Labayug had undergone full disinfection procedure.

All returning workers of the private construction company will undergo RT-PCR test at least three days before arrival in Sison, with the test result indicating they are negative of the virus causing COVID-19 to be presented to the municipal health officer, who will correspondingly issue the proper medical clearance. But if the RT-PCR test was conducted beyond the three days at the time of arrival in Sison, the worker shall be subjected to quarantine at the isolation facility for seven days to monitor symptoms upshot before he can be cleared by the Municipal Health Officer to work, the statement said.

The municipal government had coordinated with the provincial government of Pangasinan, Department of Education, Provincial Health Office, and sought the support of San Miguel Corporation through Mr. Ramon S. Ang for the conduct of sizeable RT-PCR tests in Barangays Labayug, Inmalog, Paldit and Asan Sur, targeting the barangay health workers and frontliners, small business owners, ambulant vendors and local workers.

It said that with the expanded targeted testing to be implemented and the continuous monitoring of the employees of the private construction company in isolation, “we will still expect a rise in the number of active cases”.

It assured this is not a cause for alarm, adding that this “will equip the municipal government with the knowledge of breadth of infection and actual public health situation and mobilize prompt intervention for this purpose”. (PhilStar Wire Service/ECV)

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