SBMA ChAd Eisma On “Voluntary Quarantine” As Subic Records First Two Covid-19 Positive Cases In Four Months

SUBIC BAY Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman & Administrator Wilma T. Eisma has gone on “voluntary quarantine” after a staff of Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana who was present with her during the commissioning of the BRP Jose Rizal at Alava Pier here in the Subic Bay Freeport on Friday tested positive of the Wuhan Virus (Covid-19).

This came as the Freeport’s four (4)-month long zero Covid-19 positive case record was shattered when two residents, a 22-year-old female who had a visitor from Manila, and a 42-year-old male who had travelled to Laguna, tested positive of the virus.

“It is with a heavy heart that I bring to you the news that we have several confirmed positive Covid-19 cases who have visited the Subic Bay Freeport Zone recently,” Eisma said in a statement.

SBMA’s statement did not mention any other SBMA official nor employees who could have possibly been exposed to the DND official’s presence nor of any office being shut down to be disinfected.

Asked, Eisma also did not reveal the nationalities of the 2 Covid-19 positive Subic residents, and which residential area of the Freeport they are from and are currently on “self quarantine” pending being moved to an “isolation and care” facility, raising concern among residents fearing possible exposure to the virus unknowingly because of withheld information.

She has assured, however, that she “shall continue to work and see to the operations of the SBMA while quarantined”, renewing her “call for vigilance and strict adherence to established health and safety protocols.”

Along with many parts of the country where community quarantine phases have been eased up mainly for economic reasons, the Freeport was placed on Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) status on July 1, after some 4 months of zero Covid-19 positive case record.

“While this may be the price of economic revival when we have to open our gates to help heal the economy, it becomes clearer that our only road out of this crises is eternal vigilance and mutual responsibility,” Eisma said in her statement. (VVV)

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