Arjohn Gangoso, Department of Health-Region 12 health education and promotions officer. (PNA GenSan file photo)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY – The Department of Health in Region 12 (DOH-12) said it has stepped up community surveillance against the coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) in the wake of the declaration of the country under state of public health emergency.
Arjohn Gangoso, health education and promotions officer of the Department of Health (DOH)-Region 12, on Monday said the enhanced surveillance activities are being conducted in coordination with the local government units (LGU).
He said the barangay health emergency response teams have been regularly monitoring the arrival of residents and visitors with travel history to areas in the country and abroad with confirmed cases of Covid-19.
DOH-12 and the Bureau of Quarantine have sustained the mandatory screening using thermal scanners for all arriving passengers at the city airport here.
“We have expanded the surveillance and tracing of persons with respiratory symptoms like cough, colds and difficulty in breathing,” he told PNA.
President Rodrigo Duterte issued on Monday Proclamation 922 declaring a state of public health emergency, following a recommendation by DOH after a confirmed case of local transmission.
Based on the Covid-19 situation report released by DOH-12 on Sunday evening, Soccsksargen has still no confirmed case of the deadly disease. But it reported another patient under investigation or PUI, the fifth since Jan. 29, who is currently confined in an isolation facility of a hospital in the region.
Gangoso said samples had been taken from PUI for confirmatory testing at the DOH’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
All four previous PUIs had tested negative for Covid-19 and were already discharged, he said.
He said 15 individuals are currently considered as persons under monitoring and undergoing 14-day home quarantine. Gangoso said eight of them are in South Cotabato, six in North Cotabato, and one in Sultan Kudarat.
Since January 29, a total of 87 PUMs were placed under the DOH’s observation protocol for Covid-19 and 72 have been so far cleared. (PNA)
