The city government here has been sharing its best practices in responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis with some local government units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental and other provinces in Western Visayas.
So far, 11 towns, cities and provinces have already participated in the daily benchmarking meetings of the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the past two weeks.
“It’s good to know that other LGUs are looking forward to replicating our EOC. We are happy to share our best practices with them,” City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of EOC, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Those who have visited were officials of cities of Bago, Himamaylan, Isabela, and Silay as well as municipalities of Murcia, Moises Padilla, La Castellana, Hinigaran, and Binalbagan in Negros Occidental and representatives from the Provincial Health Offices of Aklan and Capiz.
Retired Maj. Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, chief implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF)-Visayas, said that during the day-to-day benchmarking, they design programs or activities based on the data collected with the goal of bringing down the city’s Covid-19 cases and mortalities.
“We see what needs to be improved, what needs to be adopted. We are also sharing Bacolod City EOC’s best practices with the different LGUs and (agencies) like the Office of Civil Defense and Department of Health in Region 6,” he added.
Among the major initiatives of the Bacolod City EOC Task Force, chaired by Mayor Evelio Leonardia, are the One Hospital Command Center (OHCC) and the Bacolod City Covid-19 Contact Tracing (BaCTrac) System.
The implementation of the OHCC, participated in by seven hospitals in the city, has resulted in decongestion of hospitals of admitted Covid-19 patients.
Meanwhile, some 212,319 city residents and 5,128 business establishments have already registered in the BaCTrac application as of October 16.
In the past two weeks, 19 of the 61 barangays in Bacolod have been considered Covid-free.
As of Tuesday night, total confirmed cases in Bacolod have reached 4,633, including 3,976 recoveries, 539 active cases, and 118 deaths. (PNA)
