The Quezon City local government is actively conducting contact tracing with those who may have encountered an overseas Filipino worker who tested positive for the UK COVID-19 variant.
According to Francis Adante, officer-in-charge of Barangay Commonwealth, there are 90 families or 342 people in their contact tracing.
This includes 50 formal workers, 15 seniors, 2 pregnant women, and 8 children, he said in an interview with Teleradyo on Friday.
The local government has also conducted a swab test on 105 people.
“To ensure na talagang ma-contain namin ‘yong transmission, nag-request kami ng police para magbantay doon,” he said. “Kasi as per protocol, ‘pag na-swab ‘yong mga tao, hindi sila lalabas habang hinihintay ang result.”
The UK COVID-19 variant patient just came home from Korea on November 17, 2020, and settled in Sucat, Parañaque.
He applied again to work in Taiwan and when his visa was approved, he took a swab test on January 17, 2021.
From the hotel, his agency transferred him to an apartment in Riverside in Barangay Commonwealth on a ride-hailing app.
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“Wala man lang info o pasabi sa amin na meron dadating, lalo na ‘yong agency niya. Supposed to be meron siyang acceptance sa’min,” said Adante.
Meanwhile, Mayor Joy Belmonte said Friday that the Quezon City government already identified the priority recipients of COVID-19 vaccines in the city.
“We are following the protocols set by the national government with regards to priority listing. We have identified a whopping 1.06 [million] people belonging to this priority group,” she told ANC.
The priority list will include medical frontliners, senior citizens, indigent population, uniformed personnel, and essential workers, Belmonte added.
The Quezon City government targets to vaccinate a total of 1.6 million people or 80 percent of its population to achieve herd immunity.
“We have about 1.6 million people to vaccinate and I assume, well, I’m estimating this will take anywhere from 6 to 8 months to finish,” Belmonte said.
Quezon City has allotted some P1 billion in its 2021 budget to purchase vaccines and supplies needed for the vaccination.