700 Mandaue City Public Market vendors to undergo swab tests
At least 700 vendors and stallholders in the Mandaue City Public Market is set to undergo mass swab testing. | CDN Digital | Mary Rose Sagarino
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — At least 700 vendors and stallholders at the Mandaue City Public Market will undergo a targeted mass swab testing soon.
Lawyer John Eddu Ibañez, executive secretary of Mayor Jonas Cortes, said that Mandaue City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) had already sent a letter to the market informing them of the mass swab testing.
Ibañez said that the aim of the mass testing would be to know the health status of the vendors and to ensure the safety of both vendors and customers.
” Importante jud makabaw ta sa status sa atoang vendors and other sectors para pod makahimo tag actions if ever naay magpositive kay ang tong secret ra gyud is to test, trace, and treat sa atong positive cases,” he said.
(It is important to know the (health) status of our vendors and other sectors so that we can take action if ever there is positive case among them because our secret is just to test, trace, and treat our positive cases. )
However, the Mandaue City government has not yet decided on a schedule for the testing because the EOC is still finalizing the guidelines and protocols it.
” Naghimo pa tas atong protocol kay once ma swab, ma isolate baya while waiting for the result. So, nagfinalize pa ta ron.”
(We are still working on our protocol because once they are swabbed, (Vendors) will be isolated while waiting for the result. So, we are still finalizing (the protocol), he said.
Lawyer Lizer Malate, the city’s EOC head, for his part, said that because of this the testing of the estimated 700 vendors of the Mandaue City Public Market would also be done in batches.
Malate said that this would be done in batches so as not to disrupt the operations of the public market.
The plan to conduct a mass testing of the vendors and stallholders in the Mandaue City Public Market was done after the Cebu City government conducted a pooled mass testing of the vendors of the Carbon Public Market which started on September 30 until today, October 2.
Read: 591 Carbon Market vendors have undergone swab tests
Meanwhile, Ellibet Lumagas, a vendor in Mandaue City Public Market, said she would support the plan of the city.
“Okay ra para safety. Para masuta sad nato ba if naa ba ta or wala.” She said
(It’s okay for safety. So we could know if we have (COVID) or not.)/dbs
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