LUCENA CITY – The local government of Lucban town in Quezon is set to file criminal charges against those responsible for the emergence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the locality.
Mayor Celso Olivier Dator announced on his Facebook page on Monday night that local authorities have finished the “notice of violation” charges against those responsible for the emergence of COVID-19.
“What will follow is the filing of corresponding charges for violation of R.A. 11332,” he said. Republic Act No. 11332 or the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act,” considered as an offense the “non-cooperation of persons and entities,” who either should “report or respond to notifiable diseases or health events of public concern,” or who have been identified as having the disease.
Under the law, the offender can be fined between P20,000 to P50,000 or imprisoned for at least one to six months.
On Saturday night, Dator disclosed that a 22-year-old woman who returned from Metro Manila tested positive for SARS-Co-V-2, which causes COVID-19.
The woman, the second recorded case of COVID-19 in the locality, was immediately brought to the Quezon Medical Center (QMC) in Lucena City for confinement.
Dator immediately placed some areas in the locality where the virus carrier had stayed under lockdown and ordered for the aggressive contact tracing and disinfection.
According to information provided by residents on social media, the confirmed virus carrier submitted herself to a laboratory test in Metro Manila and returned home without waiting for the result.
The woman also did not inform the local authorities of her status and allegedly engaged in drinking sessions with friends and relatives and strolled around town.
When the test turned out positive, she was brought by her family in a rural barangay supposedly for isolation but later decided to come out and seek the help of the authorities.
The town’s contact tracers have identified at least 63 individuals who made contact with the virus carrier, Dator reported.
The authorities were waiting for the results of the laboratory tests.