Disinfection of government offices, barangays being done overtime, officials say

With the sustained increase  in the Summer Capital’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases, the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) has been doing overtime in disinfecting city government offices where infections took place.

This was disclosed by CDRRMO chief Antonette Anaban during the virtual management committee meeting of local officials, Jan. 18, led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, in her update report on the city’s contingency plan against the Omicron variant.

She said her office has only two fogging equipment with one already damaged so she is requesting the additional procurement of fogging machines:  Two for City Hall (left and right wing); one for the City Social Welfare and Development Office  and its field offices; and another for the City Treasury Office and market office.

Anaban said that designated safety officers should also be oriented on the use of the fogging machines so that offices need not wait for CDRRMO personnel to do the disinfection.

General Services Office head Eugene Buyucan said his office has also been regularly conducting disinfection sweeps at the hallways of City Hall.

Meanwhile, Health Services Office (HSO) sanitation division chief Charles Carame said barangays are continuously doing their own disinfection since they have already been trained to do so.

He said that before it was the HSO, Public Order and Safety Division (POSD) and Bureau of Fire Protection that conducted the disinfection in the barangays with the POSD tasked to do the scheduling.

Now, Carame said, it is the city’s contact tracers, health centers, and barangay health and emergency response teams that advises the barangays when to do the necessary disinfection. – Gaby B. Keith