5 Pangasinan gov’t workers test positive for COVID-19

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines –Five government workers in Pangasinan province have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), local officials said on Sunday.

Two of the new COVID-19 cases are from Barangay Carael; one is from Barangay Pogo Grande, and another from Perez Boulevard, all in this city. The fifth worker is from Barangay Tocok in San Fabian town.

Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim said the new cases contracted the virus in the course of their work as frontliners.

The results came out ahead of the city’s shift from general community quarantine (GCQ) to a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) on Monday.

The five were among those who were swabbed for specimens on Wednesday when the city government began its risk-based COVID-19 testing.

“We can see that in our society, we have not identified all the COVID-19 positive persons as many are asymptomatic. But what is important is we are seeing the clearer picture on the state of Dagupan regarding COVID-19,” Lim said.

Lim said more residents may also test positive for the coronavirus when results of the tests are released by the Philippine Red Cross.

“We call on the people to be calm and to pray,” he said.

Health officials have isolated the workers and carried out contact tracing.

All of them were asymptomatic, according to Dr. Ophelia Rivera, the city’s COVID-19 focal person.

Lim has appealed to the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to allow the city to remain on GCQ, which has more restrictions on people’s movement than MGCQ.

/MUF