A TOTAL of 700 households in Barangay Bug-ang, Toboso were placed on lockdown for seven days by the local Inter-Agency Task Force after eight residents tested positive for the coronavirus.

Toboso Mayor Richard Jaojoco said the first to be infected was a worker from the Department of Education, then after contact tracing, her husband, two children and her mother also tested positive for the virus.

Another contact tracing on Tuesday, April 6, yielded three of her relatives and another close contact positive results, Jaojoco said.

“We are still [waiting] for the results of more than 20,” he said.

The mayor said the town's IATF implemented a one week lockdown to enable it to effectively conduct contact tracing because residents in the area refuse to submit themselves to swab tests and there is denial that they have contact with someone who is positive with Covid-19.

The Municipal Government will only allow essential transactions to go in and out of the lockdown area of the barangay.

Only one member of each household will be issued an essential pass, the IATF resolution said.

Jaojoco said the Municipal Government provided 10 kilos of rice and 10 canned goods per household.

He believes that the rise in the number of cases in the town in the last two weeks may be caused by a new variant as it spreads very fast.

He said there are two positive cases at the Mayor's Office, three from the police station and two from the Army.

Contact tracing is now ongoing.

Jaojoco said that he underwent swab test on Sunday, April 4, after being exposed to his executive assistant who was positive and the result was negative.