MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government through the municipal health office required residents to have their own personal thermometers in their houses that could be used to frequently monitor their body temperature and ensure that immediate interventions could be done by concerned health authorities once they will record sudden rise in their temperature.
Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong said that health workers already advised the residents within their areas of jurisdiction to purchase their personal thermometers and for them to maintain a record of their body temperature so that they will be able to immediately report to the concerned health authorities once they will be able to record unnecessary rise in their temperature for them to be provided with immediate assistance.
He pointed out that the self-monitoring of body temperature by the residents is one of the recommended precautionary measures for the early detection of the illnesses of the residents and for them to be provided with immediate interventions that will avert the possible escalation of the same that could cause their being among the persons under investigation (PUIs) or persons under monitoring (PUMs) in the municipality.
Further, the local chief executive added that farmers regularly transporting their agricultural produce outside the municipality are also required to have their own thermometers in their vehicles so that they will be able to frequently monitor their body temperature while end route to their points of destination and back to their places of origin in the municipality to allow them to seek medical assistance in the nearest health facility once they will be able to record sudden rise in their temperature that forms part of the local initiative to prevent the possible occurrence of cases of the dreaded Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019.
“We want to empower our residents to be conscious of their health condition that is why we required them to purchase their own personal thermometers and maintain a record of their body temperature as guide for our health workers in the future. We really have to be extra careful of our health, especially with the emergence of the global pandemic that has heavily impacted on our economy and the way of life of the people,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
According to him, one of the threats to the gains of the municipality on the ongoing extended Luzonwide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is the unhampered transport of food and agricultural produce because people delivering such items come from different places outside the municipality that is why the municipal government has instituted mitigating measures to prevent the occurrence of incidents that could result to the presence of COVID cases in the municipality.
Ayong urged farmers and those bringing to the municipality food and agricultural products to bear with the mitigating measures being implemented by the municipal government and the health authorities at the established checkpoints because the same does not intend to hamper the transport of food but it is one of the precautionary measures to sustain the status of the municipality as COVID-free.
He expressed his gratitude to the residents of the town’s 12 barangays for their continuous understanding and cooperation to the ECQ guidelines with the hope that the situation will improve once the same will be lifted on May 15, 2020.
By Hent
