BAGUIO CITY April 03 – The local legislative body passed a resolution commending an employees of the City Health Services Office (CHSO) for voluntarily coming out in the open and admitting that he was infected with the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to facilitate the speedy conduct of contract tracing of his close contacts for monitoring purposes.
Local legislators claimed that the decision of Joel Junsay, a 52-year old employee of the CHSO to divulge his identity as a confirmed COVID-19 patient is worthy of emulation by other persons under investigation (PUIs) that tested positive for the deadly virus so that it will lessen the work of contract tracers to ascertain his close contacts for the monitoring of their health status considering their exposure to him.
The local legislative body also wished him good health and for him to immediately recover from the illness that he was able to contract in the discharge of his official duties and responsibilities considering the important role that he has been playing as one of the city’s frontliners being part of the health workers risking their lives in the fight against the contagious virus.
On March 28, 2020, Junsay reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 after reportedly showing moderate symptoms of the dreaded illness that prompted concerned authorities to subject him to the required PCR test at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) which was recently accredited by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) s one of the independent sub-national testing centers in the country.
Earlier, Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong urged confirmed COVID-19 patients to come out in the open and divulge their identities to help facilitate the speedy conduct of the required contact tracing of their close contacts to ascertain their health for monitoring purposes so that those with moderate to severe symptoms will already undergo the required test at the BGHMC considering its recent accreditation as a sub-national testing center.
Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan said that Junsay’s decision to divulge his identity as a confirmed COVID-19 patient should serve as an inspiration and motivation to future COVID-19 patients to disclose their identity so that their close contacts will also be immediately traced.
The presiding officer of the local legislative body called on the public not to discriminate COVID-19 patients who are willing to disclose their identities because it is their way of showing their all-out support to the ongoing battle against the deadly virus but instead the public should be proud of those that have come out in the open because they want other people to be spread from being infected with the dreaded illness.
Junsay, who is now in stable condition in a local health facility, is the first case of local transmission of the illness in the city considering that almost all of the confirmed cases have history of travel overseas or to areas in the country that have recorded COVID-19 cases over the past several months.
The local legislative body expressed optimism that Junsay’s decision to disclose his identity will serve as a concrete example for future COVID-19 patients not to be shamed of divulging their identities irregardless of their status in the community so that it would be much easier for their close contacts to be reached and closely monitored by health authorities to prevent the possible community transmission of the illness.
By DEXTER A. SEE
