Stock photo / INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — An official of an orphanage in Quezon City where 122 people tested positive for COVID-19 refuted the local government’s information that an asymptomatic visitor brought the novel coronavirus to the facility.
According to Charity Graff, executive director of Gentle Hands Inc. located in Barangay Bagumbuhay, the source of COVID-19 infection in the orphanage is still being traced. She also said they “have actually been quarantined for 540 days” as “we had no person going in and out.”
“It is not true that an asymptomatic visitor spread the virus because we have not received visitors at all, due to the fact that some of the children are immunocompromised and we have prohibited non-members of the staff from going inside the facility,” Graff said in a statement.
“We have followed strict health protocols beyond the minimum to protect each and every staff and child and have actually been quarantined for 540 days.”
“Prior to the staff needing to go out of the home for vaccinations in August 2021, we had no person going in and out,” she added.
READ: 99 children, 23 adults in QC orphanage infected with COVID-19
Earlier, Rolando Cruz, chief of the City Epidemiological Surveillance Unit, was quoted to have said that an asymptomatic adult allegedly visited the orphanage.
Based on the local government’s data, a total of 122 individuals, including 99 children, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes serious respiratory illness COVID-19. It also showed that 143 persons from the orphanage were swab-tested and that of the 122 who were found positive, 66 were symptomatic while 77 were asymptomatic.
But Graff said the symptoms of those infected were “manageable” and that the orphanage was “equipped” to treat the patients.
Graff also pointed out that they were directed by the Quezon City government not to disclose the matter to the public.
“However, recent inaccurate news, made without verification with us, has left us with no choice but to publicly clarify matters,” she stressed.
“We are very concerned because we are a child-caring agency and we have extended all efforts to protect the privacy of our children,” she added.