About 121 Transcom Bacolod employees will be retested for COVID-19 this afternoon and management must put facility improvements in place before onsite operations can fully resume, Dr. Chris Sorongon, Bacolod Emergency Operations Center deputy for medical data and analysis, said today, February 5.
The 121 onsite employees, who earlier tested negative, are classified as general contacts of their 41 Transcom colleagues who had tested positive for the virus, he said.
If their repeat tests yield negative results by Monday they will be able to resume onsite work, he said.
The EOC has recommended that there should be a box of masks and alcohol hand spray in every work station. Transcom was also reminded to ensure that its employees wear masks even at their work stations, he said.
Some of them said it was hard to wear masks while they were working because their voices will be muffled, Sorongon said.
However, they cannot risk not wearing masks at all times at the workplace, he said.
The EOC also instructed Transcom to increase the work station distance of each employee, and to install other health safety measures, he added.*