4 NCRPO personnel go on quarantine for possible infection

ISOLATION TENT With three male residents of Quezon City testing positive for COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the Quezon City General Hospital set up isolation tents such as this for future patients. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines – Authorities in Quezon City are racing against time to trace people who had come in close contact with two more men who tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The two new patients are a 34-year-old male who lived in a condominium on Tomas Morato and a 52-year-old male resident of Project 6 with a travel history to Switzerland, according to Mayor Joy Belmonte.

The 34-year-old resident was now confined at a private hospital outside the city, while the 52-year-old man was admitted at the Lung Center of the Philippines.

The city health department has disinfected the condominium where the 34-year-old patient lived and has begun contact tracing. His sister would be asked to go on self-quarantine, officials said. City health officials, however, have yet to determine the exact address of the 52-year-old patient.

Visitors from China, US

On Monday, the Department of Health and the city government confirmed that a 57-year-old man who lived on Baler Street had been admitted at St. Luke’s Medical Center for COVID-19 infection.

The man had received visitors from China, the United States and Davao in southern Philippines since December, officials said.

Belmonte said the mayors were “under strict instructions” from President Duterte to work together in conducting contact tracing.

In San Juan, Mayor Francis Zamora led on Tuesday the disinfection of public spaces and streets of Brgy. West Crame, where one of the four new patients who tested positive for the virus resided. The President on Monday declared a state of public health emergency and the suspension of classes in all levels from Tuesday to Saturday this week after the number of COVID-19 patients in the country, mostly in Metro Manila, spiked to 24 from 10 during the weekend. This further rose to 33 on Tuesday.

Trip from Japan

Meanwhile, four personnel of the National Capital Region Police Office went on self-quarantine for possible infection of the virus. Two of them were nonuniformed personnel who had returned from a trip to Japan on Sunday.

The two others were a police staff sergeant assigned at a police precinct in San Juan, and a police lieutenant colonel who had close contact with his wife who recently came from Japan.

The staff sergeant had frequented the Muslim prayer room in Greenhills, San Juan, which an earlier COVID-19 patient had regularly visited

NCRPO chief Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas said they had already traced those who had come in contact with the four.

“The NCRPO will already implement the directive temporarily barring all of its personnel from traveling abroad, especially to countries which reported confirmed cases of COVID-19, to prevent the spread of the virus,” Sinas said.

All applications for leave of absences going abroad have been turned down.

The NCRPO chief, however, assured the public that each of the five police districts has a five-man quick response team equipped with hazmat suits that could assist local government units.

Disinfecting key areas

Manila, for its part, has begun disinfecting key areas as a precautionary measure against the spread of COVID-19. Three trucks of the Manila Department Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) on Monday night conducted misting operations at the city hall, before proceeding to Taft Avenue, Jones Bridge and some streets in Binondo.

Also included in the route were the universities around Recto Avenue, and government-run hospitals like Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center and San Lazaro Hospital.

On Tuesday afternoon, the MDRRMO misted up key medical facilities in the city like the Philippine General Hospital and Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital, as well as schools and public markets.—With A report from Nikka G. Valenzuela INQ