A TOTAL of 24 Kabankalan City employees, as of December 1, have been infected with the coronavirus.
City Administrator Sixto Garaygay said the City Engineer's Office leads the list with 17 of its personnel who tested positive, four from the City Assessor's Office, and one each from the City Treasurer's Office, General Services Office and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
These cases occurred after the death of assistant city engineer, Garaygay said.
He said that in the past months, there were positive cases involving nine DRRM personnel, two from City Hall and some City Hospital staff.
Of the two new positive cases, one is immunocompromised because she is being treated for cancer.
Last week, the City Hall was locked down after 18 employees tested positive for coronavirus, of which seven were from the City Engineer's Office and 18 others from other offices.
Garaygay said that this week, some of them will be released from the city's isolation facility and they will be required still to undergo home quarantine for those with mild cases and are asymptomatic.
When offices resume on Tuesday, "only those with negative swab results will be allowed to report," he said.
He also said that only employees at the offices at the main City Hall building and the liaison officers and messengers of the other offices and departments that are not located within the compound were tested.
"The situation at the City Hall is under control. As a matter of fact as of Monday there are no positive cases among city employees," Garaygay said.
He said contact tracing among city employees is ongoing.
The City, he said, has implemented an alternative work arrangement.
For this week, Team B comprising 50 percent of the Main City Hall workforce will report for office duty, and they have been swabbed and with negative results, Garaygay added.
He said employees under Team A are scheduled to be swabbed Thursday and Friday and will perform work-from-home duties.
Offices outside the City Hall building will be on regular operations but with strict implementation of health protocols, he added.