BY GERARD NAVAL and VICTOR REYES
THE Department of Health yesterday said it is conducting COVID-19 vaccination operations in evacuation centers in Albay after one of the evacuees tested positive for the coronavirus.
In a statement, the DOH also said its regional office in the Bicol region is in close coordination with all local government units affected by the eruption of Mayon Volcano, “especially in protecting our people from COVID-19.”
Aside from giving the evacuees Sinovac vaccines, the DOH is also conducting disease surveillance activities, with testing and contact tracing even in the evacuation centers.
Isolation rooms have also been set up, the DOH said, in the evacuation centers and in facilities identified by the local government units.
Dr. Ernie Vera, director of the DOH Bicol Region, reported on Monday that an 82-year-old female evacuee in Barangay Gabawan, Daraga has tested positive for COVID-19. She was tested after showing symptoms of fever, cough, and cold.
Vera said the patient is being treated at the Anislag Infirmary in Daraga. Her close contacts have been quarantined and subjected to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing.
Also on Monday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said at least 628 of over 18,000 evacuees have fallen ill to common diseases like coughs, colds, fever, acute respiratory infection, and headaches.
Cases of hypertension, dizziness, skin diseases, abdominal pain, and acute gastroenteritis have also been reported.
The NDRMMC stressed there in no disease outbreak.
Albay Gov. Edcel Greco Lagman, in a radio interview yesterday, said he has asked the mayors of Sto. Domingo and Guinobatan towns to explain why they evacuated residents who are outside the volcano’s six-kilometer permanent danger zone (PDZ).
“If they (people outside the danger zone) were not evacuated, their lives should have been normal, they’re tilling their farmlands and not getting sick unnecessarily due to cramped spaced at the evacuation centers,” he said.
He said only residents within the PDZ are supposed to be evacuated based on the advisory of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
He said Sto. Domingo Mayor Joseling Aguas Jr and Guinobatan Mayor Paul Chino Garcia sent to evacuation centers residents who are living as far as eight kilometers from the volcano.
“Perhaps, they have compelling reasons why they did it,” he added.
Garcia, during the same radio interview, said residents of two barangays outside the 6-km PDZ were evacuated because the two barangays are at “high-risk” as they are located between two Mayon gullies or channels where lava may flow during rains.
“If there will be a major eruption… they are the first to be affected and it’s going to be difficult to transport them to evacuation centers if that happens,” said Garcia.
Garcia also said Guinobatan residents outside the PDZ were evacuated on the request of the residents and barangay officials.
In a statement, the Albay provincial government said only 2,640 families (10,578 individuals) are supposed to be evacuated as they are living inside the 6-km PDZ. But as of Monday noon, 5,813 families (20,049 individuals) are staying at the evacuation centers.
Mayon Volcano remains to be under Alert Level 3 (increased tendency towards hazardous eruption) which was declared by Phivolcs last June 8.
LAVA FLOW
Phivolcs said the lava spewed by Mayon has reached as far as 2.5 kilometers from the volcano’s crater.
“The lava flows have advanced to maximum lengths of 2,500 meters and 1,800 meters along Mi-isi and Bonga gullies, respectively, from the summit crater while collapse debris have deposited to 3,300 meters from the crater,” it said.
In a bulletin, Phivolcs also said it recorded one volcanic quake at Mayon from 5 a.m.
Monday to 5 a.m. yesterday, after recording none during the previous period.
During the same period, there were also 301 rockfall events (from 265), two pyroclastic density current events (from five), and 389 tons of sulfur dioxide emission (from 889 tons).
