ILOILO CITY—A dozen employees of the Western Visayas regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) has been infected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Dr. Mary Jane Juanico said in a virtual press conference that 10 of the 12 infected were from DOH-6’s Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU), which handles the coordination and data gathering for COVID-19 cases in the region.
According to Juanico, the index case was a RESU employee, who tested positive Thursday, January 7. The individual developed symptoms during the holidays, but no longer reported to work.
From that index case, Juanico explained that contact tracing was able to find nine other RESU employees positive for COVID-19.
But DOH-6 cannot ascertain where the index case was able to get COVID-19.
“As of now, we don’t know yet if this from the work place or from working in a community,” Juanico said.
The index case is currently admitted a hospital while another one is in a health facility under isolation.
“The rest are under strict home quarantine,” Juanico noted.
Meanwhile, DOH-6 said RESU can work-from-home to continue being able to gather the number of COVID-19 cases in the region comprising of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental provinces as well as the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod.