LGU offices in Quezon town closed due to rise in suspected COVID-19 cases

LUCENA CITY––The local government of Gumaca in Quezon province temporarily closed several offices starting Sept. 13, after the rise in the number of suspected coronavirus carriers among its employees.

Mayor Webster Letargo said in a public advisory Monday on his Facebook page that some of the employees were still in quarantine and waiting for swab test results.

The affected offices were the Rural Health Unit, Human Resource and Management Office, Kalinga Center Business Permit and Licensing Office, Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office, and the Incident Command Post/Contact Tracing Team.

Letargo said these offices would resume operations after thorough disinfection.

The COVID-19 vaccination set on Sept. 14 to 16 would be re-scheduled, he also announced.

On Friday, Sept. 10, the government-owned Gumaca District Hospital announced that their rooms for COVID-19 patients have reached full capacity.

“Pagod, bugbog na ang ating mga health care workers. Pero tuloy ang trabaho po nila. Punong puno na po ang Gumaca District Hospital. Pero di sila sumusuko. Kahit may mga nagkakasakit na rin sa kanila. Hindi na nakikita ang mga mahal nila sa buhay,” Letargo said on his post.

(Our health workers are exhausted. But work continues. Gumaca District Hospital is already full. But they are not giving up. Even when some of them are already sick. They also have not seen their loved ones for a while.)

As of Sept. 12, Gumaca had 72 active COVID-19 cases.

Quezon, which remains under general community quarantine with heightened restrictions, has been seeing an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases since March when the cases were 815.

From Sept. 1 to 12, the Integrated Provincial Health Office recorded 2,104 cases, with the addition on Sunday of 153 new ones.

The COVID-19 death toll in Quezon rose to 1,079 with the addition of six fatalities on Sunday and another 20 the day before, the province’s highest single-day fatality tally since the pandemic began in March last year.

The province has 2,438 active cases from 709 on July 23.

Lucena City, which is under strict modified enhanced community quarantine, topped the list with 540 active virus carriers.

The Department of Health in Calabarzon said Quezon recorded 37 COVID-19 Delta variant cases as of Sept. 5. Two of the COVID-19 patients with the Delta variant have died, and two others were under hospital confinement.

At least 16 of the patients have recovered while the rest of the cases were being subjected “for verification.”

Aside from Gumaca hospital, three other big medical facilities in the province – two private hospitals in this city and another provincial government-owned in Lopez town – have also temporarily closed their wards dedicated to COVID-19 patients.

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