Navotas warns residents who refuse testing

MANILA, Philippines — Close contacts of patients who tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Navotas City would be required to undergo swab testing after the local government received reports that some had refused to be tested and continued to leave their houses.

Under Executive Order No. 042, series of 2020 signed on Aug. 16, Mayor Toby Tiangco ordered the relatives or housemates of confirmed COVID-19 patients to immediately undergo self-isolation or be brought to community quarantine facilities until the release of their swab test results.

Close contacts who were nonresidents, on the other hand, would be endorsed to their own city’s health office.

Those who refuse to comply with the order would be given a demand letter from the City Legal Office, Tiangco warned.

“There were reports of close contacts who gave false information, deliberately misleading the contact tracing team and slowing down the efforts of the city government. We need to take a firm stand and enforce a stricter system in handling these cases,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Those who remain uncooperative would face charges for violating Section 9 of Republic Act No. 11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Concern Act.

—Meg Adonis