Canteens, smoking areas flagged for virus spread

Yesterday, we saw that there are grave violations in terms of observing minimum health standards in canteens as well as smoking areas

The government has found “grave violations” of anti-coronavirus measures in canteens and smoking areas in workplaces which might have

contributed to the surge of infections, a Cabinet official said Thursday.

Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., who serves as chief implementer of the National Action Plan against COVID-19, expressed concern that employees in economic hubs of Metro Manila and nearby provinces appeared to lack knowledge in minimum health standards such as mask wearing and physical distancing.

“We saw that the most critical areas right now are the workplaces or economic hubs or those what we call industries. We observed that workers appear to lack orientation pertaining to public safety and minimum health standards,” he said in a press briefing.

“Yesterday, we saw that there are grave violations in terms of observing minimum health standards in canteens as well as smoking areas that became source of contamination. We are looking at those as reasons we have this kind of spikes,” Galvez added.

He also pointed out that shuttle buses of workers are also vulnerable to COVID-19, as well as densely-populated areas where physical distancing is difficult to implement.

Galvez has been visiting local government units to meet with local officials and to observe on-ground situation on COVID-19.

The government eased quarantine restrictions on businesses in June, but President Rodrigo Duterte placed Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal under the modified enhanced community quarantine or MECQ until 18 August due to continuous surge of COVID-19 cases.

The Philippines has so far recorded 115,980 coronavirus infections — 47,587 of which are active cases.