BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia has ordered the mandatory surveillance testing of vendors in the three major public markets (Central Market, Burgos Market, and Libertad Market) in Bacolod City.
Leonardia’s Executive Order No. 66 provides that vendors and their co-workers, who are willing to submit themselves for diagnostic test will be issued a market pass to gain access to their stalls inside the markets and to sell along the premises of the market.
Aside from the “permission ticket” or market pass, the vendors who will cooperate with the surveillance testing will have their stalls and business area posted with the notice. “Compliant”, it said.
Should the vendors and their co-workers test positive for the virus, they will be extracted and committed for isolation, the latest EO stated.
While under quarantine, the COVID-positive vendors may still continue to conduct business in the market through their designated person in-charge, who must first be tested negative for the virus, or a designate person, provided the latter also undergoes the same diagnostic test if none has been performed yet.
Vendors who refuse and continue to refuse to undergo the diagnostic test will not be issued “permission ticket” and their stalls or place of business will be posted with notice “under process” (or in process).*
