DOH recommended symptoms screening and monitoring for evacuees instead of COVID-19 testing.
Symptoms screening and monitoring for all evacuees were recommended by the Department of Health (DOH) before going back to their communities instead of COVID-19 testing.
This, as the Department of Health said that concerned barangay health emergency response teams (BHERTs) in typhoon-affected areas must be mobilized to do the symptoms screening instead of COVID-19 testing in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease because the government didn’t have the resources to test all evacuees for the virus.
In a virtual media forum, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that in the ideal setup, it could be better to test all evacuees before going back to their respective communities.
The Department of Health recommended that symptoms screening and monitoring should be in place in order to still ensure that the coronavirus disease won’t transfer among evacuees.
READ ALSO: Total COVID-19 Cases In PH Already At 385,400
Aside from symptoms screening, the Department of Health also recommended the assignment of a safety officer in evacuation areas in order to monitor evacuees who were exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms and to handle their transfer to a separate evacuation site.
Vergeire added that they’re now studying on how to further strengthen the control for COVID-19 infection in evacuation sites as they recognized that the spread of coronavirus disease in crowded sites was possible.
Moreover, Vergeire said that whatever gaps experienced during the evacuation of residents during the onslaught of super typhoon Rolly “will be noted for future policies”.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health reported 2,298 newly-reported COVID-19 cases as of 4:00 p.m. of November 2, 2020, bringing the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus disease to 385,400.
For more news and updates, you may feel free to visit this site more often. You may also visit Newspapers.ph via official Facebook page and YouTube channel.