Koronadal city hall (Photo courtesy of the city government)
KORONADAL CITY – At least 44 public health workers here are currently undergoing quarantine after being identified as close contacts of at least four coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.
Dr. Edito Vego, City Health Office (CHO) chief, said Monday the affected workers are mostly nurses assigned in various health centers in the city’s 27 barangays and other field units.
He said they were earlier traced to have been exposed to the three nurses and a pharmacist of the CHO who turned out positive of the disease last Friday in confirmatory reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing.
One of the infected nurses assigned in Barangay Sta. Cruz had close contact with three other coworkers, causing the temporary closure of its two health centers starting Monday, he said.
To address the situation, Vego said his office already proposed to the city’s local finance committee the immediate hiring of at least 20 additional health workers.
He said they are seeking to hire 10 nurses, eight midwives and two medical technologists to compensate for the temporary loss of their 44 workers.
“This will allow us to continue with our services and the operations of our health centers,” he said in an interview over radio station Bombo Radyo here.
He assured that the new workers will be provided with personal protective equipment and undergo proper preparatory training before their deployment to the field units.
As of Monday morning, the confirmed Covid-19 cases in the city already reached a total of 39, with 17 recoveries.
Of the 22 active cases, 19 are classified as either asymptomatic or with mild symptoms and being monitored in isolation centers while three are admitted in undisclosed hospitals.
Nine of the patients had contact with confirmed cases, four had traveled to the General Santos City fishport complex, six with travel history to other areas with confirmed local transmission while the exposure of three others is still under investigation.
Vego said the contact-tracing activities are still ongoing for all confirmed Covid-19 cases and the identified close contacts so far were already undergoing quarantine.
He said they are also closely monitoring at least 27 fish vendors with exposure to General Santos City fishport vendor who turned “reactive” in rapid antibody testing.
“We’re currently waiting for the release of the RT-PCR test results of the concerned vendors,” he added. (PNA)
