TACLOBAN CITY – Subjecting all arriving locally stranded individuals (LSIs) to swab test is resource draining.
Instead these returning LSIs should be immediately isolated or quarantined by their respective local government units, Roderick Boyd Cerro, sentinel nurse and chief of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Department of Health(DOH-8), said.
The spike of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) cases of the region was largely attributed to the massive arrivals of the LSIs as well as those who have availed of the Balik Probinsiya program and returning overseas workers.
Of the 563 confirmed COVID-19 cases of the region, more than half of them were LSIs.
“We have sufficient evidence that these returning residents are infected. Testing them is resource draining. We need huge amount of resources if we will test them all,”Cerro said.
“These returning LSIs, upon their arrival, should be immediately quarantined for 14 days. We don’t need to test them, we’ll just consider them as infected. This way, our resources would not be exhausted and better used for testing for local transmission which is far more dangerous,” the health official added.
The return of the LSIs to Eastern Visayas was temporary halted by the government through a resolution of the National Inter-Agency on COVID-19. This after the region’s lawmakers and mayors, particularly from Leyte, seeking for a temporary stop of their return to their hometowns.
Mayors have also complained that their limited resources are also being drained with the return of these individuals as they have to maintain the quarantine facility and provide them their daily meals.
Cerro added that they already made an appeal to local officials to stop subjecting the returning residents for RT-PCR test but instead immediately isolate them in a facility for 14 days.
As of Friday, the region has about 563 COVID-19 cases.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Health exec says swab testing all LSIs is resource draining; suggest of placing them in isolation facility instead
Northern Samar illegal cutting of trees declines; P8.4 million lumber confiscated
(Photo by: DENR)
TACLOBAN CITY – The illegal cutting of trees in the first district of Northern Samar has declined to a negligible level.
Thus declared Rep. Paul Daza of the first congressional district of the province in a mobile phone interview with Leyte Samar Daily Express said that the series of operations conducted by the authorities on the timber poaching in the early part of this year have resulted to the decline of the illegal cutting of trees in his district.
Rep. Daza said that the efforts and accomplishments of the law enforcers to stop the illegal cutting of trees in his district is commendable as he declared that one of his advocacies is the protection and conservation of the environment.
The solon explained that in his advocacy for the protection and conservation of the environment, he just wants to protect the people in his district from floods and landslides and other devastations brought about by calamities which are blamed on environmental destruction and degradation.
It was learned that the intermittent timber poaching in the first district of Northern Samar has been going on for years now.
Records at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources regional office 8 (DENR-8) based in Tacloban City disclosed that the series of operations conducted by the authorities from the month of April, 2020 to early part of this month of June has resulted to the confiscation of more than 165,000 board feet of assorted sizes of lumber with an estimated value of P8.4 million in the municipality of San Isidro and its nearby areas.
Daza said that residents in his district have blamed rampant illegal cutting of trees for the massive flooding during typhoons for the past years resulting in deaths and agricultural destruction in the province of Northern Samar.
It can be recalled that the House of Representatives has conducted an investigation last January 2019 on the reported rampant illegal logging in the provinces of Samar and Northern Samar.
The illegal cutting of trees was blamed on the massive flooding and landslides at the height of Typhoon ‘Usman’ on December 28, 2018.
There were eight people who died in Northern Samar and five people in Samar during the fury of Usman.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)
‘Most wanted’ shot dead by Ormoc cops after opening fire to officers
TACLOBAN CITY- A 35-year old man listed among the most wanted was shot dead by policemen after he allegedly opened fire on officers serving an arrest warrant in Ormoc City last June 30.
The fatality, Rodel “Ode” Arsenal, had a warrant of arrest dated February 8, 2019, for frustrated murder and attempted murder issued by Judge Wenifredo Cuaton of Regional Trial Court (RTC)-Branch 11 in Calubian, Leyte.
The operatives said that while they were implementing the warrant of arrest to Arsenal at around 3:35 pm at Tzu Chi Village in Barangay Liloan, they were fired upon by the suspect with his Cal .45 pistol, prompting the police officers to retaliate.
Arsenal was hit in the different parts of his body which caused his instantaneous death, according to a police report.
The joint police operation was conducted by Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) led by Major Alex Echon, Ormoc City Police-Station 3 and Ormoc City Mobile Force Company under the supervision of Colonel Armel Gongona, Ormoc city police director.
“Here in Ormoc City, peace and order remains to be our priority despite the fact that we are preoccupied in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Our police force remains busy with their work,” Ormoc Mayor Richard Gomez said. (RONALD O. REYES)
COVID-19 isolation center for health workers, frontliners to rise in Biliran
TACLOBAN CITY-The province of Biliran will soon have its isolation center intended for health workers and other frontliners who are infected with the coronavirus.
The two-storey facility will have a 50-bed capacity with the construction to start immediately, Rep. Gerardo Espina, Jr. said.
According to Espina, the P7.5 million worth building will sit at 600 square meter lot donated by the provincial government located in Barangay Larrazabal in Naval town.
The solon, who is the vice chairman of the committee on health and vice chairman of defeat COVID-19 ad hoc committee at the House of Representatives, said that the facility is intended for health workers and frontliners who are suffering from coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).
While the province of Biliran has no known health workers who have been infected with COVID-19, the regional office of the Department of Health in Eastern Visayas has reported of 102 health workers who have been infected with the dreaded virus.
The Biliran solon said that he hope to see the facility completed in one month’s time considering of its ‘urgency.’
He said that the needed funding is already available with the help of Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez who is the Majority Floor Leader of the Lower House.
The construction of the said facility will be done by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Meantime, the province of Biliran has about 17 confirmed cases with the towns of Cabucgayan, Biliran, and Maripipi having new cases.
The eight new cases of the province involved locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
EDC donates RT-PCR testing center to Ormoc city government
ORMOC CITY – Lopez-led renewable energy company Energy Development Corporation ( EDC) is taking a huge step to help Ormoc City put up its own Covid- testing facility by donating a P25 million worth of equipment, including a state-of-the-art Real Time Reverse Trasncriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction(RT-PCR) machine.
On Friday (July 3), City Mayor Richard Gomez and Vice Mayor Leo Carmelo Locsin, together with EDC president and chief operating officer Richard B. Tantoco and Ormoc Sugarcane Planters Association Incorporated-Farmers’ Medical Center OSPA –FMC vice president lawyer Roy Bernard Fiel, signed a memorandum of agreement through online formalizing the first Ormoc Molecular Diagnostic Center.
The facility aims to do mass testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and gather all the necessary information to find ways to flatten the curve and manage the pandemic in the area.
“Today marks another milestone as we hold our ceremonial MOA signing via Zoom for the first time,” said lawyer Allan Barcena, head of EDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility-Public Relations team that spearheaded the fulfillment of the company’s commitment to this project.
“While we see this virtual event as part of the new normal, it is a proof that EDC’s almost 40-year strong partnership with Ormoc City cannot be hindered even by this COVID-19 crisis that we and the rest of the world are in right now,” he stressed.
EDC’s donation is a critical component of the project considering that the RT-PCR is the standard testing method used to detect SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19.
Under the agreement, the city government of Ormoc shall provide the necessary supervision, technical support, and the needed fixtures, furniture and facilities for the Molecular Testing Laboratory, as well as execute all pertinent documents as part of its responsibilities to the project.
Meanwhile, OSPA-FMC shall operate and manage the facility and provide the appropriate staff who are proficient in molecular diagnostic techniques, as provided by the guidelines issued by the Department of Health.
It will ensure that the laboratory shall only use Food and Drug Authority (FDA) registered testing kits, reagents and devices, and that RT-PCR machine and all other equipment in laboratory are properly maintained.
All three parties are working double-time to make the facility operational soon for the benefit not only of the Ormocanons but also of residents from the western part of Leyte and also those from the provinces of Biliran and Southern Leyte.
Ormoc, along with Kananga, Leyte, has been home to EDC’s 711-megawatt (MW) geothermal facility, the world’s largest wet steam field.
EDC’s Leyte geothermal facility has been supplying more than 30% of the country’s installed geothermal capacity for almost 40 years. It is also responsible for putting EDC and the Philippines on the map as the world’s 3rd largest geothermal producer.
City Vice Mayor Locsin narrated how in one evening in May 2020 that they planned to have their own COVID-19 testing center to help contain the spread of the virus.
“The manpower is already strained. And the task that time was how to buy the machine and how much would it could the city, including the accreditation process,” he said, adding the partnership only aimed for a safer and healthier Ormoc.
But with EDC’s donation of this top-of-the line equipment and OSPA-FMC’s offer to operate the machine, the plan is near to completion.
In his acceptance message, Mayor Gomez expressed his elation with the partnership his administration has forged with the private sector like the EDC.
“Very seldom we see corporations, people and the community, the local government unit, professionals and the national government working together in harmony. Fantastic and very needed, will bring good news to the beautiful people of Ormoc,” the city mayor said.
The mayor assured that the city will take good care of the equipment since the facility will be beneficial not just for the people of Ormoc but for the whole province and the region as well.
EDC president Tantoco, in his message via Zoom, explained that the company will be doing projects like this because the Lopez group is true to the credo that they are reciting numerous times in a year – and that is helping the community grow.
In jest, Tantoco added that at first he doesn’t have the idea that the machine cost millions but for the resiliency and safety of the Ormocanons, EDC will be funding 100% of the project.
The MOA states that there will be reasonable fees to be collected from the requesting party (who will undergo testing) to cover maintenance and operating cost. (MA. RUBY ESPINA)
EV logs 31 new COVID- 19 this week
Most of the patients are LSIs
TACLOBAN CITY- The number of Corona virus 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the region continue to increase with the Department of Health (DOH) announcing of 31 new cases this week.
And most of these new COVID-19 patients are those considered as locally stranded individuals or LSIs like the new case, a 25- year old man from Tacloban.
This bring the total number of cases in Tacloban City to 54.
With 31 new cases, the region has now a total COVID-19 cases of 563, the DOH-8 said.
Of the new cases, the youngest patient is a three-year old girl from Carigara, Leyte who was infected by her ‘close contact’ who works at Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC).
Carigara town Vice Mayor Eduardo Ong, Jr., in his Facebook post, said that the patient is now at their isolation facility. Ong reminded the town’s residents to remain calm and to continue to strictly follow the safety protocols set by the health department to stay home.
Earlier,14 medical workers of the said hospital, considered the region’s COVID-19 facility, were infected by the dreaded virus.
The swab samples of these 31 patients were released by the EVRMC and Divine Word University Hospital, both here in Tacloban City.
It was learned that of the new 31 cases, seven of them were just reswabbed coming from the towns of Pastrana, Palompon, Leyte-Leyte, Palo, Hilongos, Baybay City, all in Leyte; and Villareal, Samar.
Molon added that in Leyte, aside from Tacloban City, the two new cases were from Villaba and Carigara towns, while in Southern Leyte province, the patients were from San Francisco, Pintuyan, with one each; Silago, four; Padre Burgos, two and one each from Tomas Oppus and San Juan.
In the province of Biliran, the new cases were from Caibiran, Biliran, Cabucgayan, and island town of Maripipi.
The province has now 17 COVID-19 cases with one death from Kawayan town. New cases were confirmed in Motiong and Calbayog City.
Meantime, DOH Regional Director Minerva Molon said that out of the region’s 563 COVID-19 cases, 321 of them have recovered from the virus infection.
By: LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA W/ RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT & RONALD REYES