By Rey Anthony Chiu, PIA-Bohol | 06:28 PM July 24, 2020
Only 45 percent or 22 local government units here have conducted their Barangay Lockdown and Contact Tracing simulation exercises (SIMEX), said the Provincial Disaster and Risk Reduction Management (PDRRM) Officer during a recent interview.
The ideal scenario is for all towns to have conducted at least one lockdown simex, even as the PDRRM and the MDRRMs are scrambling to put up measures to stop the community transmission of the virus that has already claimed Boholano lives.
That same day when the PDRRM also conducted a Barangay Lockdown and Contact Tracing orientation in San Miguel town, July 23, Dr. Anthony Damalerio bared that the 23 LGUs have initially written their intent to the governor so they can have the training for free.
The training would allow community residents to experience a “lockdown” in cases where the government implements measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, even if this SIMEX is a simulation of the real thing.
Short of the real thing, a simex allows local government leaders, government agencies concerned like the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection and the Department of Health to coordinate in plotting their moves to implement a full lockout and effect the intent of the activity.
With the COVID-19 pandemic threatening Bohol and its communities, a simex would expose to authorities the strengths and weaknesses as observed during the simulation so that these are remedied and assure people that their leaders would know what to do when the time comes, explains Dr Damalerio during the Kapihan sa PIA.
Moreover, this also allows communities to get a feel of how a lockdown is managed and how they can help contain and isolate the people from the area in lockdown, he added.
Even if we have done this countless of times, we know there is no perfect simulation exercise, there are still things we need to perfect, as these can be the causes of spreading infection instead.
In Bohol, according to the PRDDMO, the following LGUs have completed the Barangay Lockdown and Contact Tracing Exercise: Tagbilaran City, Baclayon, Dimiao, Calape, Alicia, Antequera, Batuan, Buenavista, Candijay, Carmen.
Catigban, Clarin, Corella, Dagohoy, Danao, Dauis, Duero, Loboc, Maribojoc, Pilar, Trinidad and Ubay.
Over this, Dr Damalerio urged LGUS to write to the governor and ask for a free PDRRM training and simulation, so they too can start working for a more comprehensive containment response especially now that Bohol has recorded local transmission of the virus.
Dr. Damalerio said the PDRRM can send a team to train the municipal DRRM and the allied agencies who will implement the lockdowns, so they can coordinate and work-out together a fail-safe plan to make sure their goals are rightfully met.
This too despite the social distancing measures implemented which has affected the number of participants during the PDRRM training.
“We have permission from the provincial government and the Inter Agency Task Force to continue with our capacity building training for local government units as long as we follow the health and safety mandates,” the PDRRMO said.
He added that many people expect the PDRRM activities to be scrapped this year as the provincial government has used their office’s budgets for the COVID response, but, no we did not stop because we know we can not stop helping communities in preparing and putting up disaster mitigation measures, Dr. Damalerio noted.
