TWELVE local government units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental are joining the three-day Expanded Contact Tracing and Early Detection Measures starting Saturday, October 9 until Monday, October 11, 2021.
The activity will be participated by the cities of Silay, Talisay, La Carlota, Himamaylan and Kabankalan, and towns of Toboso, Salvador Benedicto, Pulupandan, San Enrique and Binalbagan.
These localities were identified based on the number of cases and daily attack rate.
The towns of Pontevedra and Hinoba-an, meanwhile, requested that they will be included.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson issued a memorandum to all local chief executives outlining the guidelines on the rollout and use of rapid antigen testing kits for the Expanded Contact Tracing and Early Detection Measures.
The governor, in a Zoom meeting with the mayors and Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT) on October 7, discussed the rollout mechanisms.
He announced that the provincial government received an initial of 6,500 testing kits from the Department of Health (DOH).
Lacson said these kits will be useful in the early detection of possible coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections among individuals.
In effect, it will enable the provincial government to institute control measures and prevent the rampant spread of the deadly virus that claimed so many lives, he added.
Provincial Consultant on Economic Affairs Alfredo "Albee" Benitez is also working on helping address the health concerns of the province so that it can jump-start its economic activities that will provide jobs and alleviate the lives of Negrenses, especially during this pandemic.
Benitez is also helping the province in getting more testing kits so that more people will be tested.
He tapped former Talisay City mayor Eric Saratan as a liaison or point person in coordinating with the local chief executives.
The Provincial Health Office (PHO) has been tasked to be the lead implementer of the activity.
A total of 120 medical technologists from various LGUs and Hospital Operations Department (HOD) of Capitol-run hospitals were trained by the DOH-Western Visayas.
These medical technologists will be supervised by teams of senior medical technologists from the licensed laboratories of nine government hospitals under the provincial government's Hospital Operations Department led by the Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital Molecular Laboratory in Silay City.
