LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases will be strictly implementing the no-home quarantine and isolation for asymptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients to avoid the increase in the clustering of cases among family members.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda stated that the municipal government is doing its best to look for other suitable isolation facilities to accommodate the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the municipality and to ensure that even asymptomatic individuals who test positive of the deadly virus will be isolated in existing temporary treatment and monitoring facilities or isolation centers.
He claimed that the decision of the local task force to impose the facility-based quarantine or isolation was an offshoot of the discovered clustering of cases among family members of confirmed COVID-19 cases who were required to go on home isolation over the past several weeks.
In one instance, the local chief executive disclosed that there were 12 members of a family that were infected by a confirmed COVID-19 case while in another instance, there were also 5 members of another family that were infected after one of their members earlier tested positive for the virus.
According to him, the local government does not want a repeat of these instances so as much as possible, there will be no longer home isolation for asymptomatic , except in extraordinary cases as per evaluation by the health authorities.
For the past several days, he admitted there had been a significant increase in the number of residents that are positive with the virus that is why health authorities do not want that there will be unnecessary spread of the virus among families of individuals that have tested positive, thus, the need for the patients to undergo facility-based isolation.
On the other hand, for those who need to really undergo home isolation, he explained that they must be able to pass the criteria aside from the fact that their residences should be able to meet the standards of home isolation to avoid the unnecessary spread of the virus among the members of their families.
Mayor Salda appealed to the confirmed COVID-19 patients to understand the need for them to undergo the mandatory facility-based isolation to help contain the possible rapid spread of the virus that could result in the local health care system being compromised and the frontliners being unduly stressed.
The mayor solicited the cooperation of the residents in strictly complying with the implementation of the minimum public health, such as the mandatory wearing of face masks and shields, the observance of physical distancing and the practice of personal hygiene to help contain the spread of the virus because of the emerging threat of the more infectious Delta variant.
La Trinidad has around 162 active COVID-19 cases who are being given appropriate medical attention by health personnel assigned in the different isolation centers aside from a few having to undergo home isolation for various reasons. By HENT
