Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry executive officer Frank Carbon is calling on the Emergency Operations Center of the city government and the City Health Office (CHO) to bring the fight against the coronavirus disease-2019 or COVID-19 to public and private establishments/buildings and offices.
Carbon said that these are places that are usually crowded and frequently visited.
Carbon said these places are the public markets, sidewalk fish markets, jeepney terminals, government offices and agencies, banks, BPOs, government center offices, CHO, inside and outside compound of hospitals both private and public.
He also urged the involvement of barangay officials “in our fight against Covid.”
“Maybe, we could give incentives to barangays who could consistently bring down their active cases to controllable level.”
Carbon said incentives such as food for work program, micro-grants to micro businesses in the barangay, or infra projects such as repairs of school buildings and public markets and hiring of job order workers for street and canal clean-up.
“We have to be innovative and creative in our fight against COVID and let us have an up to date and complete information on active cases, quarantine facilities, hospital beds, backlogs that should be regularly shared with the public,” Carbon said.
He said that an informed community protects itself, a self-preservation instinct of humans, and thus, exact compliance with health protocols is a must.
“Let’s keep the public informed, on a daily basis, of safe areas, high and ultra-high-risk areas in the city,” he added.
Carbon cited Iloilo City, Talisay City and other cities which he said are reporting daily COVID cases per barangay/zone, purok, and street.
“And, very importantly, economic activities could continue in safe areas, thus, preventing massive loss of jobs and livelihood that could result to hunger, malnutrition, and its knock-on effects on peace and order,” he added.
(Dolly Yasa via The Daily Guardian (TDG), photo via TDG)