Mayor shuts down Angeles City public market after vendor contracts COVID-19

PAMPANGA, Philippines – The local government of Angeles City shuttered its main public market located at Barangay Pampang before noon on Wednesday, June 24, after a vendor tested positive for coronavirus. 

Mayor Carmelo Lazatin Jr. called an emergency meeting with concerned officials and city police director Colonel Joyce Patrick Sangalang on Wednesday morning right after receiving the test result of a 21-year-old meat vendor. In that meetin Lazatin decided to temporarily shut down the Pampang Public Market.

A press release from the city government quoted Dr Froilan Canlas, officer-in-charge of the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center (RLMMC), as saying the that vendor had diabetes and already died. 

Canlas said the vendor, a resident of Barangay Pampang, was admitted to the RLMMC on June 22 and was swab tested. His test result came out on Wednesday, confirming that he was positive for COVID-19.

Lazatin said that he had ordered the rapid testing of all stall owners and vendors and the disinfection of the public market and its outside premises.

He said that anybody who tested positive in the rapid test would be isolated and mandated to undergo polymerase chain reaction test at the RLMMC.

The mayor also said that contact tracing was conducted and that all persons who had close contact with the coronavirus victim would be quarantined and tested for the viral disease.

As of June 24, Angeles City has 29 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Of the 29, 23 have already recovered, 4 died, and 2 are still active cases.

The 2 active cases are from Barangay Margot, the same village of the 80-year-old man who was found dead inside a private hospital in Angeles City after learning that he was positive of COVID-19 on June 18. – Rappler.com