Negros Occidental Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, is among the latest batch of Capitol employees and medical frontliners infected with COVID-19, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said yesterday.
Lacson also said that medical technologists and encoders at the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital laboratory in Silay City were also hit by the virus, which led to the slowdown in the release of swab test results.
This prompted the provincial government of Negros Occidental to send some of the swab samples to the Valladolid District Hospital molecular laboratory, he added.
The infection of Tumimbang led to the temporary closure of PHO, for disinfection. The scheduled vaccination on Sept. 29 and 30 at the Negros Residences in Bacolod City will also not push through, the PHO announced.
Three employees of the Negros Occidental Scholarship Program Office also tested positive for COVID-19.
Lacson said he anticipates that COVID active cases in Negros Occidental will breach the 4,000-mark anytime.
“Although not confirmed, it is really the Delta variant that is hitting us right now,” Lacson said, citing the very fast spread of the virus in triple digits as basis.
Seventeen nurses and utility personnel assigned at the Ignacio Arroyo Sr. Memorial District Hospital in Isabela, who were also hit by COVID-19, are being quarantined at the Mambukal Mountain Resort in Murcia.
Lacson said they will continue the contact tracing and those infected with the virus, stressing that when the vaccine is available, it should be administered as soon as possible, especially to senior citizens.
Many of the virus-infected persons who died were mostly unvaccinated, Lacson said. — GB
