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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Over 800 DepEd personnel, students contract virus

Over 800 DepEd personnel, students contract virus

Published Aug 24, 2020 10:37 am

The Department of Education (DepEd) confirmed Monday that over 800 personnel and students have contracted COVID-19.

During the “Handang Isip, Handa Bukas” virtual press briefing, DepEd Disaster Risk Reduction Management and Service (DRRMS) Director Ronilda Co said that as of Aug. 23, there are 823 confirmed cases within the agency -- 310 are active cases, 490 have recovered, and 23 have died. Co said that these figures are based on the cumulative data from Jan. 31 to Aug. 23, 2020.

Co said that of the 823 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 297 are students (98 are active, 193 recovered. and six deaths); 340 are teaching personnel (140 are active, 191 have recovered, and nine deaths); and 186 are non-teaching personnel (72 are active, 106 have recovered, and eight deaths).

In the DepEd Central Office located in Pasig City, Co noted that there are 19 confirmed cases: Six are active, 12 have recovered, and one death. As directed by Education Secretary Leonor Briones, the DepEd CO was temporarily closed from Aug. 19 to August 23 “to give way for a complex-wide disinfection and contact tracing activity” and “to ensure the health and safety of our skeleton workforce.”

Citing latest data from DepEd, Co said that there are 21, 775, 473 students; 871, 486 are teaching personnel, and 52, 317 non-teaching personnel.

Despite the growing number of COVID-19 cases within the agency, Briones assured that “every precaution is always undertaken” by concerned units. “Hindi tayo nagiging careless, hindi tayo nagpapabaya (We’re not being careless, we don’t take things for granted),” Briones said.

Citing data as data as of Aug 22, Co noted that out of the 797 confirmed COVID-19 cases, only “14 cases” were identified to be work-related. Of this, six are teaching and eight are non-teaching.

Briones noted that like in all other agencies, contract tracing is also a “huge challenge” for DepEd.

“Our numbers come directly from our regional offices,” she said. “At this point, we cannot engage in finger-pointing. What we can say is that we are doing everything to ensure safety of our personnel because all the precautions are in place,” she added.

Co noted that necessary assistance is given to the DepEd personnel who contracted COVID-19. However, these assistance are not given to the students “since they are under the care of their parents or families at home.”

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