FIVE court branches in Bulacan were placed under a 14-day lockdown after their staff members tested positive of COVID-19.
Meanwhile 45 employees of the Bulacan First District Engineering Office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) also tested positive of the dreaded disease.
A memorandum was released by 2nd Vice Executive Judge Corazon Domingo-Ranola of the Bulacan Regional Trial Court in Malolos City, with consent of Hon. Raul Villanueva, Deputy Court Administrator for Luzon/ OIC Court Administrator, effectively closing temporarily RTC Branches 6, 11, 14, 103 and 104 from January 10 to 22, 2022 after employees here tested positive of the said disease last Friday and Saturday, January 7 and 8, 2022.
A staff from RTC Branch 11 was tested positive of COVID-19 based on an RT-PCR test result released last January 7. The staff member last reported for work on January 4 and started to exhibit symptoms on January 5. Because Branch 11 and Branch 104 share the same office space, the personnel of both branches have been exposed to the staff who tested positive and theses offices were placed “Physically Closed.”
Two staff of RTC Branch 103 also tested positive of COVID-19 as well as one personnel of Branch 14. RTC Branch 14 and 6 also shared the same office and its personnel have been exposed to the employee who was positive of the disease.
Judge Domingo-Ranola said that she ordered the lockdown of the court branches to avert transmission of the virus and all court personnel who came in close contact must undergo swab testing and placed on strict home quarantine to avoid being infected from other sources.
Disinfection of these offices were also conducted to further curb the spread of the virus.
The courts, however, will continue to remain accessible to the public through its official hotline numbers and judiciary email accounts to address urgent matters. Judges may work through email or video conferencing with the blessing of the Office of the Court Administrator.
Meanwhile, District Engineer Henry Alcantara of DPWH-Bulacan First District Engineering Office said that 45 of his personnel were tested positive of COVID-19 during a mass antigen testing held on Monday.
Alcantara said that he already ordered a disinfection in every department and the entire office ground to avoid the spread of the virus.
In the municipality of Pandi, over 40 municipal employees also tested positive of COVID-19 during a mass antigen testing that started last Thursday.
“Ang importante ay vaccinated lahat kaya mild lang ang symptoms. Mostly pinag-isolate lang namin ang mga empleyadong nagpositibo, nagsagawa na rin ang aming health staff ng contact tracing and we initiated disinfection sa premises in-out ng mga opisina at munisipyo,” Pandi Mayor Enrico Roque said.
As of January 10, Bulacan recorded 970 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 4 days, with active cases reaching 5,241 with a total of 97,259 confirmed cases, 90,531 recoveries with 1,487 deaths.