Key workers tested positive for Covid

FOUR PEOPLE trying to enter Zamboanga City from the province of Zamboanga Sibugay were tested positive for Covid-19 following random tests on travellers at the Licomo border.

Photos posted of Mayor Beng Climaco's Facebook page show Licomo border guards manning a Covid-19 control point for travellers entering Zamboanga City.

During the August 11 conduct of antigen tests to dozens of travellers, two men who are essential workers, tested positive for the deadly respiratory disease. Two persons who had close contacts with the duo also tested positive after all of them underwent RT-PCR tests.

They were immediately isolated and under observation. It was unknown how many others had close contacts with the four men before they tried to enter Zamboanga City. The names of their companies were not made public.

The national government listed essential economic or key workers as those under the A4 priority list in the mass vaccination and these are the following: Commuter transport (land, air, and sea), including logistics, frontline government workers in the justice, security, transport, and social protection sectors; public and private wet and dry market vendors; frontline workers in groceries and supermarkets; delivery services; workers in manufacturing for food, beverage, medical, and pharmaceutical products; frontline workers in food retail, including food service delivery.

And also frontline government workers, frontline workers in financial services; teaching personnel in medical and allied medical courses of higher education institutions, including personnel handling laboratories; frontliner workers in hotels and accommodation; priests, pastors, religious leaders; construction workers in government infrastructure projects, and security guards and personnel assigned in establishments, offices, agencies, and organizations.

Mayor Beng Climaco has lauded border guards for strictly enforcing the health requirements for all travellers, including essential workers and those authorized to travel whether they are fully vaccinated or not.

The mayor reminded travellers anew to present their S-PASS aside from negative Covid-19 test results every time they enter Zamboanga City.

S-PASS is short for Safe, Swift, and Smart Passage Digital Travel Management System developed by the Department of Science and Technology which is being used across the country upon order of the Department of the Interior and Local Government during this pandemic period. It was institutionalized this year as a one-stop-shop application or communication for travellers. (Zamboanga Post)