760 people in Albay town on quarantine

POLANGUI, ALBAY—Health workers of this town in Albay province were closely monitoring over 700 residents who have been placed on home quarantine after coming in contact with an employee of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) who tested positive for the coronavirus disease.

The isolated residents who came from several villages of the town were exposed last week to the PSA employee who engaged in house-to-house visits in preparation for the issuance of the national identification system.

The residents were immediately isolated on Tuesday after health officials in the town learned that the PSA employee who visited their house had tested positive for COVID-19.

“There are about 760 persons from different barangays who are undergoing home quarantine after they were exposed to a COVID-19 positive PSA staff,” said nurse Anqelique Sarte, focal person on COVID-19 at the municipal health office.

She said the quarantined residents had their reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test taken last Tuesday and were still waiting for the result of their swab tests.

Suspend

Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda on Thursday asked PSA to immediately stop its door-to-door survey as their personnel could become the spreader of the disease.

“I appeal urgently to your office to temporarily suspend the door-to-door and face-to-face data collection for the national ID system and other surveys until we could reasonably guarantee that enumerators (data collector) will not be vectors for infection,” Salceda said in a letter to Claire Dennis Mapa, national statistician of PSA.

He said the data collectors themselves were also at risk of being in close contact with the infected.

“While I support the national ID system … completing it as soon as possible to help distribute necessary programs, we should conduct data gathering activities in ways that do not endanger the lives of our citizens,” he said.

He added that if the PSA would insist on in-person registration, it should first vaccinate its data gatherers.

—MICHAEL JAUCIAN INQ