The Cauayan Municipal Hall will reopen today, April 19, with a 30-percent workforce, after it was closed for disinfection when five councilors and members of their staff and other town employees tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
Mayor John Rey Tabujara said he expect to see a lowering in the number of active cases starting this week after more than 10 employees, including the five councilors, finished their 10-day quarantine Sunday.
Other town residents, who were found to have been infected, were asymptomatic and started going home Sunday, while more are set to finish their 10-day quarantine period this week.
Tabujara said 123 residents, including the municipal employees, were placed on isolation. He said a resident, who attended a cock derby in Barangay Andulawan, Ilog, later tested positive and one of the councilors was his close contact.
This councilor was asymptomatic and joined an activity of the municipal government in one barangay last week. With four other councilors and their staff members, the asymptomatic official rode in one vehicle to and from the site.
The lockdown of 95 households in Sitio Tuod, Barangay Isio, will remain until April 22, Tabujara said, and the food needs of the affected families will still be provided by the barangay.
Thirty residents of Sitio Tuod were discovered to have contracted the virus after one of them attended the cockfight in Ilog.
Tabujara added that close monitoring of those who have finished their quarantine, and contact tracing will continue.
He said the 80 swab samples they sent to a molecular laboratory on Friday all turned out negative for the virus. – MML
