Alternative work arrangements pushed in San Fernando City to curb COVID-19 spread

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union –– The city government has encouraged all government and private offices, including business establishments, to provide alternative work arrangements following reports that most of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients here belong to the working sector.

Mayor Hermenegildo Gualberto on Wednesday, Feb. 24, issued an executive order asking employers to shift to work-from-home, skeleton workforce, four-day compressed workweek, and work shifting/flexible working hours.

“These schemes aim to limit the exposure to the virus as there is a high probability that workers get infected while at work or while in transit to work,” the mayor said in the order.

Citing health data, Gualberto said there was an “alarming” increase of cases this month and 75 percent of the virus-infected patients are Authorized Persons Outside of Residence.

The city remains under modified general community quarantine and has 64 active COVID-19 cases.

In Pangasinan province, Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim reduced the number of days that the four public markets would be closed for disinfection.

Lim said the markets would now undergo disinfection only twice a month instead of four times.

This is after the number of active COVID-19 cases dropped from 248 on Jan. 17 to only 27 as of Feb. 25.

“There must be a balancing act between the economy and the COVID-19 cases. So we decided to close the markets only twice a month. For the vendors. Two open market days would mean they could earn on those days,” Lim said.

But Lim said the officials are still studying whether or not to lift the liquor ban as they were still observing if the number of cases would still go up during the last week of February.

LZB