Gullas admits to being a ‘close contact’ of COVID-positive individual

Talisay City mayor says use of a face mask saved him from the infection

Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas Jr. | Contributed photo/Talisay City PIO

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas is asking asking his constituents to remain vigilant and to always wear their face masks.

In a Facebook post this Monday morning, January 11, 2021, Gullas said that the use of a face mask saved him from the infection.

He admitted that he became a direct contact of an infected person when he reported for work on Jan. 4, the first working day of the year.

Gullas said that he only knew on Tuesday that the person that he was with for an hour was COVID-positive.  He was immediately placed under quarantine and was subjected to testing.

He said he felt lucky that his test result that was released on Friday, Jan. 8, did not show traces of the coronavirus disease.

“That’s why una gyud nako hangyo ninyo (my first request) is the protocol of wearing a mask. It can be the difference between contracting the virus and not,” he said.

Gullas said that while he has been looking forward to achieving a COVID-free Talisay City, he is also well aware that it is near impossible for densely populated localities to achieve this kind of a status.

He said that they were already very close to being COVID-free when the number of infections in their city dropped to only two early in December 2020.  But the number of infection again increased to 32 on Saturday, Jan. 9, with the addition of eight new infections.

Courtesy of Talisay City Public Information Office

“Again the goal is 0 cases. But if lisod na kay densely populated kaau ta, (But if it’s difficult because we’re densely populated) we can learn to accept that the virus will always be here and the way moving forward as we go back to work and bring the economy back is to enforce strict health protocols,” the mayor said.

“But I want to be clear. While the government wants to impose the protocols, we need the help of everyone to enforce it within themselves as well. Cause as I said, the government can’t be in all places at once and with Talisay having a population of over 300,000 people.”

Gullas said that although Talisay City’s COVID-19 cases is again increasing, they are now in a better position to fight the infection as compared to the time when the pandemic was first reported last year.

“Today testing is free and much faster ang results. So it is easier to isolate kay mas dali man resulta (because the releasing of test results has been made faster). Today we have numerous testing labs that give results in 24 hours. Sauna mag 3-7 days toh (In the past, this will take 3 to 7 days.),” he said.

The presence of contact tracers and the implementation of clearer health protocols also helped in preventing the massive spread of the virus.

“But saying all that, as I said, we have remain to vigilant. Ang kontra gyud nato aning tanan is kanang mu kompyansa ta tanan (Our biggest problem is when we all start to be complacent.)

/bmjo