By Allan Francisco
To help arrest the surge of COVID cases in Quezon City, the local government has appealed to national government agencies within its jurisdiction to implement a “work-from-home” scheme starting Holy Monday until Easter Sunday.
Mayor Joy Belmonte said this is meant to limit the mobility of people in the next nine days.
“During this time frame, we hope to reduce the number of infection significantly, thus easing the burden on our healthcare system and our medical frontliners who are tirelessly working 24/7,” she disclosed.
Since January 2021, the Quezon City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit has recorded a total of 310 COVID-19 cases in about 30 national government offices in the City, with 192 of them active as of March 24.
Dr. Rolly Cruz, head of the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit, stated that their direction is to reduce the workforce and if possible, make it even lower than the government mandate of 30 to 50 percent.
“If more people are at home rather than commuting to work or coming to their offices, then hopefully it can slow down the spread of the virus,” Dr. Cruz added.
Dr. Cruz pointed out that a significant number of COVID-19 cases involves personnel who got infected in the workplace and transmitted the virus to members of their household.
“Ang nangyayari nakukuha ng isang empleyado sa opisina. Sabay-sabay kasi sila kumakain, magkakasamang nagyoyosi or nag-uusap minsan na walang mask dahil kampante na sa isa’t isa. Tapos mata-transmit niya sa bahay pag-uwi dahil walang health protocols na sinusunod sa bahay (What is happening is that an employee gets infected in the office. They eat together, smoke together and sometimes chat without masks since they are lax around each other. And then, it [virus] will be transmitted when they get home since no health protocols are followed in the house),” Cruz reckoned.
After a family gets infected, it would then lead to community transmission. And if this happens, there is no other choice but to place an area under special concern lockdown.
As of March 23, 2021, the CESU said 487 out of 3,742 COVID-19 cases or 13.01 percent happened in workplaces while 985 or 26.35 percent occurred in households.
Meanwhile, the QC Fresh Market at the Quezon Memorial Circle will be temporarily stopped due to surge of COVID cases in the city. The QC Small Business and Cooperatives Development Promotions Office will be posting in their Facebook page on its reopening.
