12 DOH-6 employees test positive for COVID-19

Twelve employees of the Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV-CHD) tested positive for COVID-19, the agency reported on Jan 9, 2021.

One of the employees is from the engineering office, one from the health and promotions office and ten are stationed at the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (RESU).

According to Dr. Mary Jane Roches Juanico, Medical Officer IV and Infectious Disease and EOH Section Head of DOH-6, all 12 employees exhibited mild symptoms of COVID-19.

“One is currently admitted to a hospital, two are in a quarantine facility, while the rest are on strict home quarantine,” Juanico said in a virtual press briefing on Saturday.

Contact tracing is still ongoing in coordination with the local government units and all identified close contacts in the workplace have already been notified and placed under quarantine.

Juanico said it is still unknown how the employees contracted the virus. She noted that some of the employees exhibited mild signs of COVID-19 like chills and colds in the first week of January.

“The index case tested positive on Thursday and we initiated the contact tracing immediately. Since our employees are on post-holiday, we still did not know as of this time the exact source of our transmission at the DOH 6,” she furthered.

The health department said that disinfection and decontamination of the office premises were already done. Following the detection of cases, DOH 6 will employ work from home arrangements in some of its divisions starting on Monday while test results of other contacts are still pending. (ERS)