BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The City Health Office here has started its probe related to three Oriental Negros residents, one an overseas worker, who tested positive for the COVID19 virus after passing through this city that has the highest number of confirmed COVID cases in the province.
Physician Ma. Antonia Gensoli said they will coordinate with provincial officials of Oriental Negros following announcements that the three new positive cases, two from Mabinay town, one from Vallehermoso, had been stranded or passed through this city.
One is an overseas worker who is now in Mabinay.
Gensoli told DNX they have yet to verify the details of the report that first came out on local media outlets here.
The three are part of the six new confirmed cases in that province.
This developed today, 3 June, as the local branch of a nationwide bank voluntarily stopped operations after it was confirmed that the city’s Patient 14 had close contact with two of at least seven employees.
The Asian United Bank (AUB), on the other hand, will also donate food supplements and vitamins to Patient 14, a 36-year-old nurse who was among the volunteers of the education department’s division office deployed to the frontlines in the past months.
“Routine preventive maintenance” was the reason for the disruption in the bank’s operations that will return to normal on 11 June, according to local AUB management.
This was also the reason relayed by the bank to its clients through a printed message posted outside its closed doors.
Yesterday, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chair of the local inter-agency task force, had confirmed that no authorities here have not issued a lockdown order for the bank.
“But we have taken steps to make sure that we are contributing against the spread of the disease,” a bank insider told DNX.
The CHO had already taken swab samples from seven of the AUB employees who have had contact with the latest positive case.
The insider, however, said only two had “close contact” with Patient 14 who, as of yesterday, remained asymptomatic, according to Gensoli.
Local IATF spokesperson Grace Tan added the samples will be sent today to the testing facility.
She also said only then can it be confirmed if any of them tested positive or negative amid rumors swirling on social media that the branch manager was already found positive.
“There can be no declarations without the results,” Tan pointed out.
