Tiangco asks market, store vendors to undergo testing

Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco has appealed to owners and lessors of markets and supermarkets, including convenience stores, to encourage their employees or tenants to undergo free swab testing for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“Markets, groceries, and convenience stores continue to be points of convergence. We need to implement measures to protect vendors as well as their customers and keep them safe from the disease,” he said in a statement.

Under Executive Order No. 045 signed earlier this week, Tiangco waived the quarantine requirement for vendors awaiting their test results as long as they did not have close contact with a positive case or resided in areas with a high number of cases.

In July, he also did the same for fisherfolk and drivers of public utility vehicles to encourage them to undergo testing. He said many of them had refused out of fear they would be required to go into isolation, leaving them with no source of livelihood for days or weeks.

But Tiangco assured those who would undergo testing that the city social welfare office would provide their families with relief packs should they turn up positive to sustain them during quarantine.

Positivity rate down

“Our positivity rate has gone down ever since we strengthened, with the help of the national government, our capacity to test, trace, treat, and isolate patients. The COVID task force even recognized our isolation efforts as best practice,” he said.

As of Thursday, the local government had conducted 26,501 swab tests. Navotas now has 4,142 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 120 fatalities and 3,471 recoveries.

In July, the city began conducting free swab tests for residents and nonresidents who work in Navotas after Tiangco placed the entire city under a two-week lockdown due to a rapid increase in the daily COVID-19 tally.