Health officers, police in Cebu City to dispatch teams for surveillance, contact tracing
Dr. Daisy Villa, Cebu City Health Officer | PHOTO COURTESY OF CEBU CITY PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Five teams composed of officers from the Cebu City Police and the city’s health office will be dispatched to do contact tracing.
Dr. Daisy Villa, Cebu City Health Officer, announced this in a press conference on Monday, March 30, 2020.
Cebu City now has a total of 20 confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as of Sunday, March 29, 2020.
Three of these have already succumbed to the disease. The latest fatality was a 60-year-old male who was the 25th COVID-19 patient in Central Visayas.
Villa said they have clustered barangays in the city into five areas – south, north, central, east, and west. She added that each team is assigned to one cluster to do contact tracing.
“There is one team for the north, one for the south, one for the east, and one for the west. Each team has an assigned leader,” said Villa.
The city’s health officer also said they are now waiting for the list of police officers who will be accompanying them in their contact tracing.
In the meantime, Villa said they have identified some individuals who have come in close contact with the COVID-19 patients, adding that they are now being closely monitored while undergoing isolation in their respective locations.
“The police have also helped us to make sure our contacts will stay at home, and that no one will go in and out of the houses where they are now placed under isolation,” she said.
Slum areas
Meanwhile, Villa expressed concern that the virus might reach slum areas in the city.
“Once this virus spreads into the slum areas, it would be hard to contain. This is a worst-case scenario we’re trying to avoid at this point,” said Villa in a mix of Cebuano and English.
She added that most of the patients admitted with COVID-19 belong to the socioeconomic classes A and B.
“This is why we strongly advise against the holding of gatherings,” Villa said. /bmjo
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