Cluster infections recorded in Pangasinan, Davao work sites

STA. BARBARA, PANGASINAN—At least 119 workers of a brewery here have contracted the coronavirus and have been confined in the town’s isolation centers, including the plaza where tents have been put up in response to the surging cases.

Mayor Joel delos Santos said the brewery plant in Barangay Tebag West had stopped operations due to the infections. The village has been placed on lockdown for 14 days, along with Maticmatic, Carusocan, Ventinill, and Banaoang where some residents have also been infected by the virus.

Health officials were also closely monitoring two more villages for possible rise in virus transmission.

The infections at the brewery were detected after the mass swab testing of its 536 employees and contractual workers between Sept. 29 and Sept. 30.

12 establishments

In the Davao region, 50 new coronavirus cases were reported in at least 12 workplaces, prompting authorities to tighten health protocols, said Dr. Lenny Joy Rivera, assistant regional director of the Department of Health.

While clustering of cases used to be rampant only in villages, easing the region’s quarantine measures to revive the economy also brought about the clustering of new cases in the workplaces, Rivera said.

She said health authorities had been working closely with the Department of Labor and Employment and the local governments to ensure that health protocols were strictly followed.

Hazard pay

In Subic Bay Freeport, workers in the front-line and essential services of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) recently received P22.73 million in hazard pay for reporting for work during the enhanced community quarantine.

Most of those who received the pay were security officers and firefighters who were on field assignments at a time when most employees worked from home, said Wilma Eisma, SBMA chair and administrator. —REPORTS FROM YOLANDA SOTELO, JUDY QUIROS AND JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT INQ