Bacolod, NegOcc try new mode in fight vs COVID-19

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Bacolod Emergency Operations Center executive director, City Administrator Em Ang said that the City of Bacolod and the Province of Negros Occidental are harmonizing their respective data and operations in a new approach to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Officials of Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center – Task Force (EOC-TF), the Provincial Health Office (PHO), and the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) met to discuss important matters about the coordination process between the two local government units (LGUs).

Ang said the coordination meeting will be regularly held weekly between the two LGUs to synchronize their operations.

The City and the Province will be sharing their respective daily COVID-19 situationers, which include the number of active cases, available quarantine and step-down facilities, data on patient extraction, and available hospital beds in the seven public and private hospitals in Bacolod, Ang said.

OIC-City Health Officer Dr. Edwin Miraflor Jr. said that through this coordination, the LGUs will be able to share their best practices with each other.

“This will synchronize and harmonize the patient referrals of the two LGUs,” Miraflor added.

In Bacolod, the One Hospital Command Center (OHCC) System is in place; it aims to ensure that there are available hospital beds for individuals with severe COVID-19 symptoms.

Ang said the two LGUs have already clarified the official guidelines on the use of hotels in Bacolod as quarantine facilities during their first coordination meeting last April 16.

Ang stressed that only hotels validated by the Department of Health (DOH) are allowed to function as quarantine facilities to make sure that COVID-19 positive and negative individuals are both safe.

Hotels that accept regular guests are not allowed to operate as quarantine facilities because they will expose non-infected individuals to COVID-19, Ang added.

In welcoming the coordination, PDRRMO head Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian said: “I hope that we can interact regularly so that if we have concerns, the City can immediately address it, and likewise with the province. We have to work hand-in-hand since we are in one island.”

He also stressed that the Province is campaigning for the use of “StaySafe,” which is the country’s official platform for health condition reporting, contact tracing, social distancing systems, and border controls.

Bacolod, through its EOC, is also endorsing the use of “StaySafe” as one of the requirements for inbound travelers, on top of the BaCTraC, its online contact tracing system.

“We are also recommending ‘StaySafe’ but at the end of the day, we still have BaCTraC IDs in compliance with City Ordinance No. 941.  At the same time, our data officers have full access to the database of the BaCTraC System. That’s why it’s easy to track the activities of a COVID-19 positive index and their close contacts,” said EOC deputy medical Dr. Chris Sorongon.

“We will also be able to identify the workplace and different establishments that the index has visited,” he added.

Also joining the meeting are CDRRMO head and EOC deputy medical Dr. Anna Ma. Laarni Pornan, and DOH representative Ben Arnel Dela Cruz. (With a report from City PIO)