Benguet COVID-19 watch: 5 new cases in La Trinidad, municipal hall shut down

PROPER DISTANCE Adequate spacing between doctors and patients is observed at an outdoor triage station at Benguet General Hospital in La Trinidad, Benguet, where patients with history of travel to areas with confirmed COVID-19 cases are assessed.  (Karlston Lapniten)

BAGUIO CITY — The municipal hall of La Trinidad, Benguet was shut down  on Thursday after three police officers, a health worker and a student tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) a day earlier, Mayor Romeo Salda said.

Employees and visitors have been asked to momentarily keep off the building as disinfection and contact tracing procedures are being carried out.

Salda was one of the Benguet mayors who agreed to synchronize  quarantine procedures with neighboring Baguio City, after observing a spike in the umber of COVID-19 cases in Cordillera region the past few days.

All Cordillera provinces recorded newCOVID-19  cases, including Mountain Province which announced its first COVID-19 infection on Tuesday (June 16), raising the number of cases from  57 to 101 at the start of the week.

Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Tuesday said the city government offered to help test high risk individuals in Benguet and beef up contact tracing procedures to keep transmission at bay.

The summer capital has shifted to a modified general community quarantine status, which allows more businesses to open. Some of establishments employ residents from Benguet towns.

Magalong said border controls will be tightened across Baguio and La Trinidad. For example, trucks shipping organic chicken manure for farms and gardens will be strictly monitored, to ensure proper travel passes have been issued, according to the city public information office.

During its Wednesday (June 17) meeting, the Cordillera Inter Agency Task Force observed that most of the new cases involved police officers, overseas Filipino workers, health workers, and vegetable traders.

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