MANILA, Philippines —The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Central Office in Batasan Hills, Quezon City, will be put on lockdown for three days beginning Friday, according to Secretary Rolando Bautista.
Bautista said in the memorandum he signed on Thursday that the measure was taken in compliance with the advice of the Quezon City local government, which aims to restrict COVID-19 transmissions amid an ongoing surge of cases.
Bautista did not say if any DSWD workers had contracted the disease, but he did say that the lockout was intended to prevent “the spread of COVID-19” inside the main office.
He said that in view of the recommendation from the DSWD Central Office COVID-19 Action Team relative to the result of the workplace assessment conducted by the Quezon City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, the following actions would be implemented to help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 in the DSWD Central Office:
• Three-day lockdown to allow the Administrative Services to conduct disinfection/ decontamination of the entire DSWD Central Office compound including all of its buildings starting Friday, 19 March 2021 until Sunday, 21 March 2021
• All employees shall be under a work-from-home arrangement on 19 March 2021 during the conduct of the massive disinfection in the Central Office
According to Bautista, regular work operations would resume by Monday, March 22.
DSWD is the latest government agency to place its premises under lockdown. Previously, the entire Senate of the Philippines compound was placed on lockdown until March 24 after 24 of its workers tested positive for COVID-19.
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