Eighteen Barangay Minoyan residents and five social welfare personnel of Murcia, Negros Occidental, were reactive to rapid tests conducted after an ambulance driver from the town tested positive for COVID-19 and have all been quarantined, Murcia Mayor Victor Gerardo Rojas said yesterday.
However, Rojas stressed that the reactive rapid test results are not conclusive for COVID-19 and the 23 have been swabbed for Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests, which results have yet to be released.
The 47-year-old ambulance driver is a member of the Emergency Response Unit of the Negros Occidental Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO), who is now quarantined at the EB Magalona healing center.
Sixteen of his PDRRMO colleagues, including Zeaphard Caelian, head of the Provincial Disaster Management Program Division, are also quarantined at the Mambukal Resort in Murcia until their RT-PCR test results are released.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said they expect the RT-PCR test results to come out today, as the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital laboratory underwent maintenance work during the weekend.
The ambulance driver is from Purok New Site, Barangay Minoyan, in Murcia.
Rojas on Friday placed Minoyan under Enhanced Community Quarantine and Purok New Site under Extreme ECQ where 120 houses have been locked down.
He said 18 persons, including members of the ambulance driver’s family, had reactive rapid tests results.
Since the wife of the ambulance driver is a barangay health worker, personnel of the Murcia social welfare office were also subjected to rapid tests and five had reactive results, Rojas said.
Rojas said he hopes the release of their RT-PCR test results are prioritized by the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital laboratory in Silay City.
The mayor said on Saturday he also issued Executive Order No. 77 Series of 2020 suspending the operations of public utility vehicles plying the Mambukal-Bacolod, Mambukal-Murcia and Minoyan-Murcia routes until further notice, to prevent COVID-19 local transmission.
Violators will be subjected to criminal prosecution and civil liabilities, Rojas said.*
BY CARLA P. GOMEZ
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