WITH the coordination and approval of various stakeholders and members of Mabalacat City’s task force against Covid-19, Mayor Crisostomo Garbo has signed Executive Order (EO) 104, creating the Covid-19 Response Integrated System.
The EO marks a well-defined local government framework that “will focus on the prevention, contact tracing, isolation and reintegration of residents of Mabalacat City. This system shall be in-charge in managing the spread of the dreaded Covid-19 virus”.
The local Covid-19 Task Force will now be divided into four core pillars: Prevention (Blue), Contact Tracing (Yellow), Isolation (Red), and Reintegration (Green). Each team will be headed by a rural health physician as designated focal representatives of the task force.
On the prevention aspect, the Blue Team will focus on the stern implementation of the DOH-imposed minimum health standards in "ground zero" areas where the gathering of people is inevitable such as offices, Toda terminals, markets, churches, and across all settings, regardless of severity of risk. The group will also be in-charge of the timely delivery, and inventory of vaccines and other personal protective equipment (PPEs) and other logistics needs.
For the Mabalacat City Government (MCG) vaccination plan, the Blue team will lead the establishment and management of the Vaccination Operation Center which has been recently accredited by the DOH-Central Luzon. MCG targets efficient utilization of the vaccines to reach a herd immunity of at least 70 percent or 120,000 of its population.
The local government will be executing a Trident Attack Plan against Covid-19 with the Department of Health (DOH), the City Government, and companies who will implement private vaccinations to fill the gap in the mass immunization plan. Other tasks under the team’s helm include master-listing of eligible population, workforce, implementing units, and vaccination sites.
To curb the surge of Covid-19 and ultimately "close the loop," Garbo is set to intensify its grassroots contact tracing procedures through the Yellow Team accelerating its city and barangay health and medical teams. This team will focus on the supervision and monitoring of all Antigen and Polymerase Chain (PCR) Testing in Mabalacat City, and perform after-case investigation for every reported probable and confirmed Covid-19 case.
The Yellow Team is primed to: determine all close contacts of the Covid-19 positive patients; decide whether the patients are for isolation or quarantine following a PCR test; determine whether a person is symptomatic or asymptomatic.
Meanwhile, City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer (CDRRMO) Jeffrey Santos will head the Isolation Team (Red) of the task force.
The team is tasked to supervise the implementation of the Home Care Package System (HCPS) aside from the establishment of additional isolation for symptomatic and asymptomatic patients in the city.
The Reintegration Team (Green) is assigned to implement post-Covid surveillance of patients in all households and workplaces in Mabalacat City. Responsibility also includes the coordination with public and private organizations in reintegrating Covid-19 recoverees in the community.