GENERAL SANTOS CITY – The National Task Force (NTF) against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) will inspect next week the isolation facilities and assess the response initiatives of local government units in Region 12 (Soccsksargen).
City Mayor Ronnel Rivera said on Thursday NTF chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and other officials will lead the assessment in a visit here on July 21.
He said Galvez, along with officials from the national Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases, will meet with local government officials in the region to look into the area’s Covid-19 situation and address possible gaps.
“They will visit and evaluate again the current situation as well as measures being implemented at the city fish port complex,” he told reports.
The NTF team inspected the fish port complex in Barangay Tambler here in September last year after it was identified as a hotspot for Covid-19 transmission.
The situation at the fish port, which is managed by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, had been a concern for the city due to the thousands of workers and traders converging at the site on a daily basis.
Rivera said they are hoping that the national government, through the NTF, will grant the local government’s request for the allocation of some 5,000 Covid-19 vaccines for the inoculation of the city’s fishing industry workers.
He said the planned vaccination will cover workers of fishing companies, canneries and those at the city fish port complex.
The move is aimed to protect the concerned workers and sustain the operations local fishing companies and allied industries, he said.
The business sector here, through the South Cotabato Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce Inc., started on Wednesday the inoculation of some 3,999 workers of various companies who are under the priority group A4. (PNA)
