The Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) reminded persons identified as having come in contact with COVID-19 positive patients to disclose all necessary information to the City’s Contact Tracing Team.
The EOC reiterated its call after it discovered that some individuals have withheld relevant information from the Contact Tracing Team, a press release from the Bacolod City Public Information Officer today, January 21, said.
“Early detection, identification, isolation and containment of the virus prevent dreaded effects which may lead to death,” Dr. Rosalie Deocampo, contact tracing cluster head, said.
The information to be provided during contact tracing must be “truthful and accurate” to effectively curb the spread of the viral disease, Dr. Chris Sorongon, EOC medical deputy for data analysis and assessment, added.
The EOC warned that charges can be filed against individuals who do not provide the needed information during contact tracing. Under Section 9 of Republic Act 11332, “tampering of records or intentionally providing misinformation” and “non-cooperation of the person or entities identified as having the notifiable disease, or affected by the health event of public concern” are prohibited acts.
“Late detection of symptomatic individuals (not disclosed upon contact tracing) may lead to Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), instead of Influenza-Like Infection (ILI) if detected early, the press release said.
SARI may lead to an increase in the city’s hospital admission,” said Deocampo.
Bacolod City had 13 new COVD-19 cases as of January 19, raising the number of active case to 122, which is still relatively low, the press release said.
“Having low cases doesn’t mean we can be complacent. We should even be stricter since we are now having low cases,” Sorongon said.
On January 7, the Department of Health confirmed the detection of a new coronavirus strain (B.1.1.7. SARS-CoV-2) in a Filipino who returned home from the United Arab Emirates.
A travel ban is now in place until January 31, covering 34 countries to prevent the further spread of the new strain.*