Bulacan town market closes for COVID-19 disinfection

CLEAN UP. Firemen and employees of Angat town have disinfected the town market and Barangay Sta. Cruz where a spike in coronavirus transmissions was recorded. Photo from the office of Mayor Leonardo De Leon

ANGAT, Bulacan — This town’s public market was locked down from Friday (March 19) to Sunday (Mar. 21) for extensive disinfection after some of its vendors contracted COVID-19.

Mayor Leonardo De Leon did not disclose how many vendors were infected but he said the market will reopen on Monday (Mar. 22).

Because of the new cluster of COVID-19 cases there, the public market will be closed every Sunday for routine disinfection, the mayor said. Market hours have also been limited to 4 a.m. until noon from Monday to Saturday.

Barangay (village) Sta. Cruz and other villages with a high number of cases were also disinfected on Sunday by firemen and members of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office.

Angat, one of the 24 towns and cities in Bulacan, used to have the lowest number of COVID 19 cases since March last year.

Angat currently has a total of 192 infections recorded since 2020, of the cases, 55 are active.

On Friday, nine residents — including a 73-year-old and a 12-year-old  — were recorded as having contracted COVID-19. Angat now has 10 fatalities.