Two BIR offices ‘closed’ after COVID patient’s visit

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Two offices of the Bureau of Internal Revenue were closed after a COVID positive patient was confirmed to have visited their premises.

The BIR offices are in Bacolod City and Victorias City which were closed Wednesday until Monday next week for disinfection.

BIR Regional Office-12 Chief Administrative Officer Norma Bayoneta said Regional Director Jonathan Anthony Jaminola ordered the closure after the patient, a 45 -year-old frontliner, visited their two offices to check his tax identification number.

The BIR official said eight employees from both offices came in contact with the patient.

Bayoneta also said the patient claimed to have been working as a job order casual for the provincial government of Negros Occidental.

But Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, said they are currently unaware about any employee from the provincial government who tested positive for COVID-19.

Diaz said 25 members of the Silay City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO) team were quarantined Wednesday after one of their members tested positive.

The 41-year-old male DRRMO member is currently at the EB Magalona Healing Center and his 25 colleagues have been quarantined at the Silay City Healing Center where they will be swabbed for Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests.

If they test negative, they will be released from the Silay Healing Center, Diaz said.