City authorities and owners of grocery stores and supermarkets under the Baguio-Benguet Entrepreneurs and Traders Association agreed to cooperate to pursue the mandatory testing of all grocery workers and set lockdown procedures to follow in the occurrence of Covid-19 infection.
In a consultation meeting held Aug. 15, Mayor Benjamin Magalong promised to help the association avail of low cost tests to enable its members to comply with his order to pay for the Covid tests of all their workers.
The mayor issued the order last Aug. 12 after a clustering of Covid positive cases occurred in one supermarket proving the vulnerability of the sector to the disease. He said the testing requirement like what he imposed on banking companies recently would determine who are infected and immediately facilitate control measures to arrest the transmission.
Association members admitted they are hard up in complying with the 100 percent swab testing requirement due to the high cost of Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction tests.
The mayor said he will work out an arrangement for the association to avail of low-priced test kits as soon as possible.
The parties also agreed on lockdown guidelines covering the terms of contact tracing, closure, and personnel redeployment their inclusion in barangay lockdown orders, among others.
The mayor also reminded the businessmen to intensify the implementation of health protocols in their establishments to ensure the protection of their customers and workers from the virus.
With the mayor during the consultation were City Health Officer Rowena Galpo, CHSO Sanitation Division Head Charles Carame, and City Permits and Licensing Division Head Allan Abayao. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
April 20, 2024
