By Tara Yap
ILOILO CITY – There is a need for barangay officials to have stronger monitoring against the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Western Visayas region.
Assistant Secretary Gerard Gonzales of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV), and Regional Director Marlyn Convocar of the Department of Health (DOH-6) jointly made this appeal.
This was after DOH officials found that only Antique, Guimaras and Iloilo province, as well as the regional capital of Iloilo City, have created Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTS), which was mandated by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Gonzales urged officials in Aklan, Capiz and Negros Occidental provinces to complete the establishment of BHERTs. He particularly mentioned the low-compliance of Bacolod City in Negros Occidental, which only has 17 BHERTs when there are 61 barangays.
The BHERTS are supposed to track residents who have recently returned from abroad, especially from areas where there are positive COVID-19 cases.
Meanwhile, DOH-6 reported there were 29 people who were classified as patients under investigation (PUIs).
“Western Visayas region still does not have a positive case of COVID-19,” Convocar reiterated.