SAN CARLOS City Mayor Renato Y. Gustilo called for a meeting among health officials and department heads, Thursday, March 12, following the declaration of State of Public Health Emergency throughout the Philippines and earlier pronouncement by World Health Organization of Covid-19 as pandemic.
Mayor Gustilo urged the public to be calm and instead heed the precautionary measures issued by the government to avert the spread of the disease.
He asked those individuals coming from abroad and other places in the Philippines to coordinate with the barangay or the City Health Office since local transmission has already occurred.
He said that 50 units of thermal guns are arriving on Saturday, March 14, to be used to monitor thermal status of people at different public areas in the city. He also asked the local health authorities especially the city health office to implement the necessary protocol in handling the situation should an incident occur.
Gustilo added that he will go around the local establishments to inspect if they are implementing or providing the recommended sanitizers at the entrance or exits of their stores and see if the prices of hygienic products and other basic commodities are still fixed at their regular price.
City Health Officer Dr. Arniel Laurence Portuguez said that the Barangay Health Workers (BHW) and the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT) are now in full alert in monitoring residents in every barangay.
On the other hand the Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Superintendent Anthony Leobet, CESO VI said that since they don't have any directive from the DepEd and since no pronouncement yet from the city mayor of any cancellation regarding the graduation, they will just postpone the earlier schedule of public schools graduation to April 13-17, 2020 as mandated by the national office. (PR)