MANKAYAN, Benguet – The Itogon Suyoc Resources, Inc., a subsidiary of the Davao-based Apex Mining Company, Inc. (AMCI), donated hundreds of boxes of Vitamin C to the municipal government as part of its corporate social responsibility to help the local government efficiently and effectively contain the spread of the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the municipality.
The donation was formally received by Mayor Frenzel Ayong during a simple turnover activity held in Baguio City over the weekend.
Earlier, ISRI donated some 200 antigen test kits each to Mankayan and Itogon towns following the recent surges in COVID cases in their areas of jurisdiction where the said donations were received by Mayor Ayong and Itogon Municipal Administrator lawyer Noel Ngolob, respectively after the same was handed over to them by AMCI Vice President for Geology and Exploration Eric Andal.
Mayor Ayong expressed his gratitude to the management of both the mother company and the subsidiary for its unwavering and uncompromising commitment to support the ongoing and future initiatives of the local government and concerned stakeholders to contain the spread of the deadly virus in the municipality and for being mindful of the needs of the municipality even without being formally requested to do so which shows the company’s sound management practices.
After the sudden surge in the COVID cases in the municipality from the middle up to the end of November, the municipal government partnered with the Cordillera office of the Office of Civil Defense (OCDA-CAR) and the State-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for the conduct of mass testing in the municipality that was held last December 16-17, 2020 where some 1,678 individuals were able to avail of the free swab test to ascertain the positivity rate of the municipality.
Based on the results that was released by the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center (ITRMC) located in San Fernando City, La Union, some 70 persons out of the 1,678 individuals that availed of the mass testing tested positive for the virus which represents a positivity rate of 4.1 percent that is lower than the prescribed threshold by the World Health Organization (WHO) of 5 percent.
He pointed out that the municipality deserves the utmost support from concerned government agencies and the private sector to be able to effectively and efficiently manage the prevailing situation in the municipality as efforts are being done to cater to the needs of the patients that are confined in the various isolation facilities in the locality.
The local chief executive claimed that the COVID situation in the municipality has been under control even during the sudden surge in cases from the Lepanto mine camp because of the active participation of the concerned government agencies, the offices of the municipal government and the private sector that poled their available resources to address the increase in the number of cases. By HENT