LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Mayor Romeo K. Salda called on residents that there is great reason to hope for the best as people are now more equipped and knowledgeable to handle the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic after more than a year of suffering from the ordeal that everyone experienced.
In an appeal to the people of the municipality, he stated that vaccination has started and that government officials are optimistic that at least 70 percent of the country’s population will be vaccinated in due time to achieve the desired herd immunity that will serve as the jump off point in going back to normalcy.
However, Salda pointed out that the local government does not have any intention of making the lives of the people any harder than they are already are but people should understand that the various hospitals and isolation are already full;, the medical workers are now tired and over worked; some community members are dying and the identified major cause of the COVID-19 transmission is the unregulated and unchecked law of movement, worsened by the failure of the people to comply with the prescribed minimum public health standards.
He pointed out that the marching orders from the national government through the inter-agency task force for emerging infectious diseases id very clear and people will have to adhere to the same, particularly the regulation of the movement of people in the different places and initiate all possible measures on the same.
The local chief executive assured the residents that in the course of implementing the rules and regulations, there is a need to balance the prevailing conditions and the dictates of law and ordinances on the prescribed basic health and safety protocols.
According to him, the local government listens to the plight of the people and that local officials acknowledge their mistakes and immediately correct them as soon as possible to prevent further damage, fault or injury to those concerned but the same is a difficult task, weighing the consequences of every decision, knowing that its significantly impacts on the lives of the community.
Salda emphasized that the municipal government will continue to follow the science and that local officials will follow what doctors and experts will say, thus, every community member must follow the same.
He argued that the lives of the people depend on their compliance to health and safety protocols, thus, it is worthy to salute the frontliners in every field and that the same is in the interest of the La Trinidad community.
The municipal mayor came out with the advisory following the recent surges in the number of COVID cases in the municipality that caused the existing health facilities and isolation units to reach full occupancy that compelled the local government to coordinate with the education department for the use of existing public elementary and high schools as temporary treatment and monitoring facility for future COVID cases.
Salda remains optimistic that with the implementation of the stringent rules and regulations, the situation of the municipality will get better in the coming weeks so as to free up the congested health facilities and isolation units. By HENT
