By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Negros Occidental’s provincial administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, confirmed yesterday that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is again hitting provincial government employees.

According to Diaz, among the

affected employees are from the Provincial Budget Office and the Provincial Planning and Development Office.

A number of medical workers from the capitol-run hospitals in the province are also falling ill after getting exposed to patients who are only visiting the hospitals for other ailments.

Those patients would later test positive for COVID-19.

Diaz said they have proof that many of the patients who are roaming the province may be asymptomatic, especially as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 only lasts a minimum of two days with flu-like symptoms.

In response to the growing number of health workers who are getting sick, Diaz said Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has ordered the release of antigen test kits from the Provincial Health Office as a means of protecting their healthcare workers.

As of Monday, January 17, Diaz said they counted 21 reported COVID-19 cases, of which seven are positive, eight are high-risk cases, and six are currently under isolation./DGB, WDJ