Striking a balance

Project Balik Buhay, an initiative of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (Opav), local government, concerned national government agencies and the business sector, has come up with guidelines that it wants local government units (LGUs) to adopt to allow businesses to open safely.

First, LGUs should conduct random testing within businesses and, second, they should immediately suspend the operations of a company where an employee tests positive for SarsCoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease 2019.

So far, three mayors in Cebu have expressed support for the measures.

Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. of Talisay City cites the need of having protocol for testing, contact tracing and isolation for businesses, while Mayor Elanito Peña of Minglanilla believes the proposals will prevent the spread of infection not only among employees but also among customers or clients. Mayor Joannes Alegado of Consolacion, for his part, says these will serve as reminders that a health protocol has to be followed while the country remains in the grip of a global pandemic.

The proposals make sense, considering Covid-19 is a highly infectious disease that can prove fatal. However, these also come at a price for both the LGUs and the businesses.

LGUs have to shoulder the cost of the random testing, which does not come cheap. Many are hard up for cash after months of lockdowns.

A real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, the gold standard in testing for the coronavirus, costs between P4,000 and P13,000, depending on the turnaround time for results. The rapid antibody test, although relatively cheaper at around P400 to P700, is not recommended by some health experts since the result is “inconclusive,” mainly because it detects the presence of antibodies that the immune system produces and not the Sars-CoV-2.

Businesses, too, have been affected by the restrictions imposed by the community quarantine. Many are opening only now.

Under the PBB’s proposal, a business with an employee who is found to have Covid-19 during the random testing will be forced to close the infected employee’s workplace for 14 days, or until all the other employees who had close contact with the positive employee have been traced and tested at a Department of Health-accredited laboratory at the company’s expense, whichever is earlier.

Nevertheless, the aim of the PBB is to balance economic sustainability and public health security. To achieve this, LGUs will have to work with the Opav, other government agencies and the business sector.

Members of the public, too, must do their part by strictly adhering to health protocol to make the job of the LGUs and businesses to prevent the spread of Covid-19 easier.