THE CITY government is not saying it. As a matter of course, if not pride, it may even deny it. But the City of San Fernando has turned to be the ground zero in the surge of Covid-19 infections in the province of Pampanga.
The numbers in the official charts show it.
In the March 9 Coronavirus Disease Bulletin of the Pampanga Provincial Information Office, there were 15 registered cases for the day throughout the province, 10 or two-thirds of these were listed in San Fernando.
On March 12, the city information office’s own chart listed 16 new cases, and the next day, another 17. On March 14, there were 12 new ones listed. Zilch, zero, nada were the common entries for the rest of Pampanga, with a one or a two barely there.
As disturbing as those numbers is this advisory in the CSFP-CIO Facebook page posted March 14: “Please be informed that the Office of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of San Fernando, Pampanga will be closed starting March 15 to March 16, 2021 to give way for the office disinfection.”
It did not say why the office was being disinfected.
It was in the evening of March 5 when Nicole Caluag posted in her FB page that her mom, Barangay Dolores chair Vilma B. Caluag, ex-officio member of the sangguniang panlungsod by virtue of her being the president of the Association of Barangay Captains, “tested positive for Covid-19” and experiencing mild symptoms.
It had to take all of 10 days for the city to decide to disinfect the SP office from the day Caluag tested positive. How is that for the quick response that Mayor Edwin “EdSa” Santiago takes pride in as a benchmark in addressing the pandemic?
Something’s not right there. The city could be covering up for something. It could not have been Konsehala Vilma’s case that spurred the SP office disinfection.
Indeed, indeed. A purported intra-office communication leaked out of city hall, during the weekend, citing the main purpose for the disinfection, to wit:
So, how many new cases of Covid-19 could have arisen from there?
No, the city government will not say. They need not to. Just do the math and you’d know. Keep safe everyone.
