TUBLAY, Benguet – The municipal government disclosed that chicken dung dealers situated in ten sites of the municipality are required to comply with stringent health and safety protocols to prevent the spread of the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the locality.
Mayor Armando Lauro said that chicken dung dealers are required to have their employees, particularly their drivers and helpers, to undergo either the rapid diagnostic test (RTD) or swab test to ensure they are free from symptoms can cause the transmission of the virus in the town.
Tublay is one of the three remaining COVID-19 free municipalities in the province after Benguet’s number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surged to 36 from only 14 last June 10, 2020.
Earlier, the municipal government required all licensed chicken dung dealers in the municipality to set up handwashing stations at the entrance of their business areas, mandate their workers to wear face masks at all times, ensure that the delivery trucks are covered appropriately, people transacting business should observe physical distancing and other established health and safety protocols before they will be allowed to operate following the downgrading of the province’s status to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
Lauro claimed the operation of the chicken dung business can open anytime because the municipal government understands the predicament of farmers in accessing the aforesaid fertilizer but it is important for the dealers to present the RDT or swab test results of their employees before being allowed to start their business activities.
He admitted that since the forced stoppage of the lucrative chicken dung business in the locality at the start of the ECQ implementation, the municipal government also lost substantial income from the payments of dung dealers for their daily transactions, thus, municipal officials want the resumption of the aforesaid business to bring back economic activities in chicken dung trade areas.
According to him, the municipal government is ready to give the go-signal to the chicken dung dealers to resume their trading activities due to the numerous demand from farmers in the province who have difficulty in accessing the fertilizer but what is important is their workers should have passed the rapid or swab tests being required from them the soonest.
Mayor Lauro pointed out the municipal government sympathizes with the plight of the farmers and the chicken dung traders but what is needed at this time is the cooperation of the concerned stakeholders in complying with the established health and safety protocols because it is now part of the new normal situation to be embrace by everybody to prevent the transmission of the virus in the municipality.
Among the requirements the traders and dealers should comply with is the availability of alcohol or sanitizers in designated areas in their trading centers or even in their trucks to ensure that every activity be endowed with the corresponding sanitation as one precautionary measure against COVID-19.
By Hent
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