MANILA – With the number of monitored infected cases rising in the past weeks, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William Ramirez reminded everyone to “never put your guard down when it comes to Covid-19.”
After imposing a 10-workday lockdown on the two complexes of the agency starting Tuesday, Ramirez informed that disinfection of facilities was being carried out and a revision of health-security protocols has been done.
He expressed his concern over the alarming number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases that were monitored in the last round of testing.
“We sent all athletes home even before the imposition of the first lockdown last year,” Ramirez said in a news release on Friday.
He said there are no more athletes training or staying in any of the agency’s facilities.
Both the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila and PhilSports in Pasig are being used as “we-heal-as-one centers.”
Among the many assistance given to athletes and National Sports Associations (NSAs), the PSC also assists in getting them reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing when requested or required for their training or competitions.
Ramirez urged all NSAs to be more cautious and to actively remind their athletes to follow basic protocols saying, “in this case, it is better to be safe than sorry.”
Some sports are training under their NSAs in venues outside PSC facilities.
Assistance and Coordination Division Chief and head of the PSC Emergency Response Team, Manuel Bitog, has been designated head of the Risk Management Team.
Executive Director Guillermo Iroy Jr. has given instructions to implement stricter protocols and roll out a QR code-based monitoring system within the agency to aid interaction tracing. (PR)
