ALL individuals positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the town of Consolacion in northern Cebu are under home isolation.
This as the town’s two isolation facilities are still undergoing major repairs due to damage wrought by Typhoon Odette (Rai) on Dec. 16, 2021, said Consolacion Mayor Joannes Alegado.
The two isolation facilities are located at the Consolacion Community College in Barangay Jugan and Barangay Tayud.
Alegado said these will be utilized in a few days even as the Tayud facility will not have electricity yet.
Should the cases continue to rise in the town, Alegado said they might consider once again using public schools as isolation facilities.
“With the exponential growth of cases, these facilities wouldn’t be enough,” he said citing that these could only cater to more or less 75 individuals.
As of Jan. 19, 2022, the town had logged 32 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of active cases to 133.
Of the 21 barangays, only Barangays Lanipga, Panas, Panoypoy and Polog have no active cases on the same date.
Alegado said the Department of Health (DOH) allows home isolation and home quarantine provided that all safety requirements are met.
“Isolation and quarantine are still being facilitated and monitored by our BHERTS (Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams) and the Municipal Health Office (MHO). As of now, all our cases are home isolated,’’ he said.
The mayor said they expect a continuous rise of cases in the town since Covid-19 cases in their surrounding LGUs are on the rise as well.
Mandaue City has 851 active cases of Covid-19 after it had logged 165 new cases as of Jan. 19.
“Being part of Metro Cebu proximity to the densely populated cities, we ourselves are densely populated as well. It is inevitable that our numbers would increase most especially with the Omicron variant as highly contagious and infectious which is lurking all throughout the Philippines,” he said.
Omicron
DOH 7 chief pathologist Mary Jean Loreche said on Tuesday, Jan. 18, that there are 22 confirmed cases of Omicron variant in Central Visayas. Of the 22 cases, Loreche said five are local transmissions, 10 are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), six are returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs), and one is a foreign national.
Loreche did not disclose the whereabouts or residences of the individuals as a way of protecting them.
But she said majority of the cases are in Cebu and that is all the people should know.
“The important thing is that the public are aware that the Omicron variant is already here in the region,” Loreche said.
Meanwhile, Alegado said nearly 50 percent of Visayan Electric Company clients in the town have been reenergized, more than a month since Typhoon Odette devastated Cebu.
The mayor said Visayan Electric assured them the company will add more manpower to hasten the restoration of the town’s power supply.
For its part, the Metropolitan Cebu Water District has restored the water supply to 70 percent of its clients in Consolacion, said Alegado.
As far as damage assessment is concerned, the mayor said Typhoon Odette damaged roughly P2.2 billion in commercial, industrial, institutional and residential properties while it left around P8 million damage in agriculture.