Digos City Hall transactions ground to halt after employee tests positive for coronavirus

DIGOS CITY—Transactions at the City Hall here ground to a halt on Wednesday (Oct. 7) after an employee tested positive for SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19, prompting officials to order other city government workers to go home.

Digos City Mayor Josef Cagas immediately ordered the city disaster risk reduction and management council (CDRRMC) to disinfect all offices at city hall and the city council building to prevent coronavirus transmission.

Vice Mayor Johari Baña confirmed that an employee had contracted COVID-19 but denied reports that a lockdown had been imposed in the city hall building.

He said employees were just told to pack up and go home to pave the way for the disinfection of all areas inside city hall and legislative building, which are just meters apart.

Dr. Ronald Jumilla, City Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (CESU) chief, said health workers already started contact tracing and had taken samples for tests from people who had close contact with the infected employee.

Cagas has ordered enforcement of stricter health protocols in the city since Oct. 2 to prevent further the spread of the virus, following the surge of COVID-19 cases in some areas here.

Curfew hours were moved an hour earlier to 8 p.m. from the previous 9 p.m. to end at 5 a.m. the following day. In an advisory issued on Oct. 2, the mayor also discouraged mass gatherings for weddings, baptisms, birthdays and other events. Funeral wakes should be attended only by close relatives of the dead, according to the mayor.

The mayor also ordered a limit to movement of people on Sundays, banning all vehicles from streets. Private establishments, malls and the public market were ordered closed on Sundays. Religious activities are limited to only 50 percent of churches’ capacities.

As of Oct. 6, the city government listed 93 COVID-19 cases, 70 of them recoveries and two fatalities.

Edited by TSB