BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Metro 3rd Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which is the nerve center of the district in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, will be operational within a week in EB Magalona, Negros Occidental.
The first to be organized among the districts in Negros Occidental, excluding Bacolod City, the Metro 3rd EOC aims to integrate resources and support structures of Victorias City, EB Magalona, the cities of Silay and Talisay, as well as Murcia, in the fight against the pandemic in 24/7 operations.
Spearheaded by Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez and Abang Lingkod Rep. Stephen Paduano, the EOC will have swabbers, contact tracers and encoders to supplement the capacity of local government units, set up a medical referral system through a tele-medicine system, and activate a quick response team for emergency cases.
These efforts, Benitez said, will improve focus on the containment of the virus, through identification and isolation of affected areas, where a granular lockdown may be enforced by a local government unit.
The 3rd district stepped up the capacity of its 72 health workers, who are swabbers, contact tracers and encoders in a second training-workshop held Sept. 19, in Victorias City.
Benitez said the Metro 3rd EOC has pooled manning and other logistical resources from mayors of the five local government units, with the assistance and support of the Negros Occidental provincial government, Department of Health, and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Visayas through retired Maj. Gen. Mel Feliciano.
Executive director Mary Ann Dino, of the Betty Bantug Benitez Foundation, who is also an executive assistant of Silay City Mayor Mark Golez, has been designated as the Metro 3rd EOC action officer.*
