MASINLOC, Zambales – Fifteen confirmed Covid-19 cases on Thursday and another 16 on Friday from a single area here prompted the local government to order its lockdown.
Mayor Arsenia Lim issued Executive Order No. 27, Series of 2020 ordering a total lockdown in Barangay Bani and Sitio Relocation, Barangay Taltal and directed massive contact tracing thereat in the wake of the surge in Covid-19 cases.
The 31 new cases are the result of an on-going five-day swabbing process of the Philippine Red Cross – Zambales Chapter on several workers of the coal-fired facility of the Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. owned by San Miguel Corp.
PRC-Zambales administrator Elizabeth Tovera said these cases came only from the first batch of swab-tested workers of the coal plant located in Barangay Bani.
Masinloc municipal administrator Glen Elayda said the move of the mayor is to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease in Masinloc.
He said Lim had scheduled emergency meeting with Bani barangay officials, the police, representatives of the Department of Education, provincial disaster risk reduction and management office, and San Miguel Corp. Friday at the Bani National High School to address the situation.
Masinloc has the most number of Covid-19 cases in the whole of Zambales at 25.
