Frontliners in the city will be enjoying a slight break from their more than nine months of being exposed to exhaustive anti-Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) response operations to allow them to enjoy the well-deserved break with their families and for them to regain their second wind.
City Administrator Noly Tenedero reported that Mayor Darwin C. Estrañero is sympathetic to the clamor of the health workers and other frontliners for them to have a slight break from their existing routine as almost all of them are exhausted after the over nine months of continuous service to the public.
However, he clarified that the ‘timeout’ for the frontliners will not mean a lockdown in the city but just a part of the strategic measures to give the frontliners their well-deserved break without compromising the health and safety of the public.
From December 22-26 and December 30 to January 2, the city will not be accepting returning locally stranded individuals (LSIs) but those wanting to enter the city will have to undergo the required swab test from the private hospitals that are providing such services for the immediate release of their swab test results for them to be released from the city’s isolation facilities during the said period.
Tenedero disclosed that from the previous 30 to 40 daily LSIs being allowed to enter the city and undergo the required quarantine while awaiting the release of their swab test results, the number increased to 50 to 60 persons daily with a projection to further increase in the coming days because of the ongoing rush of people from the urban centers going back to their homes for the yearend break.
According to him, the decision of the city government to grant the Yuletide ‘time out’ to the frontliners was forwarded to the provincial and regional inter-agency task forces for the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases for their action to ensure that such initiative will be aligned with the government’s efforts to contain the spread of the deadly virus in the different parts of the country.
On his part, Mayor Estrañero commended the frontliners for weathering the difficulties of having to put their lives to utmost risk by rendering their services for the protection of the health and safety of the people in the city and admitted the serious challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic and other human factors that affects their morale in sustaining the gains of the city in its campaign to contain the further spread of the virus in the city.
Tenedero claimed that the last day by which the city will be formally accepting returning LSIs will be on December 21, 2020 while they will be again allowed to enter the city on December 27-29 after some of the city’s isolation facilities shall have been freed with the expected discharge of confirmed cases.
He appealed to returning LSIs to understand the situation because the city does not want the isolation facilities to be stressed with the sudden increase in the number of individuals wanting to come in to the city in the simplest manner that will be allowed. By HENT
