THE Cebu City Government is having a hard time isolating over 500 residents of Barangay Mambaling who were found positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
The residents, including those living in the densely-populated Sitio Alaska, refuse to stay in the barangay isolation center (BIC).
Cebu City Health Officer Daisy Villa and Mambaling Barangay Captain Gines Abellana both said they could not just force the residents out of their homes to stay in the quarantine center.
The Covid-19 patients are asymptomatic.
Abellana told SunStar Cebu that he will try again to persuade residents to go to the isolation center for the safety of everyone.
Abellana explained that most of the barangay’s Covid-19 cases chose to just stay at home to be with their families and be more comfortable.
However, in a separate interview, Councilor Dave Tumulak said 12 residents of Sitios Alaska and Tinabangay will have to be isolated as they fell ill with fever.
Of the 12 residents, only five volunteered to go to the barangay isolation center, said Tumulak, chairman of the committee on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management and head of border control.
For her part, Villa encouraged infected Mambaling residents to go to the isolation center so it would be easier to monitor all of them.
Villa said one of the Covid-19 patients from the barangay developed fever but was treated immediately.
As officials could not just force Mambaling’s Covid-19 patients to stay in the isolation center, Villa instead asked them to keep on wearing a protective mask all the time.
She also advised them to immediately contact the authorities if they happen to develop any of the symptoms.
Mambaling has two isolation centers, the Mambaling Elementary School and Alaska Elementary School.
Mayor Edgardo Labella placed Sitio Alaska under lockdown on Wednesday, May 6, 2020.
Bacayan transfer
Meanwhile, officials of Barangay Bacayan are preparing to use the Bacayan Elementary School (BES) as isolation center for the barangay’s 40 asymptomatic Covid-19 cases.
Bacayan Barangay Captain Zenaida Colina said they preferred to house the Covid-positive patients from Sitio Upper in the BES considering the patients’ distance from Talamban, where a City-designated isolation center is located.
Bacayan is a mountain village north of Cebu City, about eight kilometers up the hills from Barangay Talamban.
Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, a member of City Hall’s Covid-19 crisis management team, agreed to let the Covid-19 cases stay there as the school is located on a hill, far from the residential area.
Garganera said relief assistance to the families of the 40 Bacayan residents will be provided.
The new Covid-19 cases found in Bacayan on Sunday, May 10, 2020 will be swabbed in the coming days to determine if they still have the virus. (BBT, REV)