LA TRINIDAD, Benguet– The municipal government ordered vegetable traders and truckers transacting business in the vegetable trading post and the Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) to have their own logbooks to help speed up contact tracing of confirmed Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases traceable to those doing business in the said government facilities.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda said the requirement for vegetable traders and truckers to have their own logbooks containing a record of their daily activities, the places where they travelled, the people whom they transacted with, among other important information, will aid contact tracers in ascertaining close contacts to guide decision makers on actions to take.
Aside from documenting their daily activities, he reminded the vegetable truckers and traders going in and out of the municipality to strictly observe the no-touchdown policy to prevent them from contracting the deadly virus from the places where they came from and eventually transmitting the virus to their close contacts in the said facilities.
Earlier, a 22-year old vegetable truck helper from Sitio Botiwtiw, Balili tested positive of the deadly virus followed by his own 44-year old driver from Poblacion, Tuba town and their 28-year old close contact, who is another truck helper from Little Kibungan, Puguis barangay, among other close contacts who tested positive for the illness.
“We consider our vegetable traders and truckers, including their employees, as among those vulnerable in contracting the deadly virus from the places where they come from because of their exposure to many people that is why we advised them to strictly adhere to the no-touchdown policy in the trading centers outside the province, and even in the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post and the BAPTC,” Mayor Salda stressed.
He advised employees administering the affairs of the vegetable trading post and the BAPTC to constantly monitor the compliance of traders and truckers to the aforesaid policies to ensure there will be no more additional emerging COVID-19 cases, especially from the government trading facilities.
According to him, La Trinidad is fortunate it has competent contact tracers who are immediately deployed to the strategic areas once there are confirmed cases in the municipality and immediately secure the patient and the members of their families for swabbing to ascertain their health condition after being exposed to COVID-19 patients.
However, he claimed that the municipal government has no direct control over the activities of traders and truckers in the different private vegetable trading centers thus he will simply request the management of the said establishments to consider requiring traders and truckers transacting businesses in the private areas to have their own logbooks for easy contact tracing and monitoring.
He urged all vegetable traders and truckers both in the private and public trading facilities in the municipality to comply with the new rules and regulations governing the community quarantine to help control the spread of the virus in the municipality.
By Hent
Photo by JC
