More than a hundred employees of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) contracted the new coronavirus, including its administrator Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad.
Mark Cashean Timbal, spokesperson for the OCD, said that, as of 7 p.m. on Thursday, a total of 116 OCD personnel tested positive for the coronavirus, or 30 percent of the 380 total personnel based at OCD Central Office.
Of those who tested positive, 80 percent were asymptomatic.
All OCD employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“This is the first time that we had this large number of positives. The last time we had our [skeleton] team tested, only six turned out positive, and they were all asymptomatic,” Timbal said.
The OCD Central Office in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, will be closed until Aug. 30 to undergo disinfection. —Dexter Cabalza