City Vice Mayor Jose Antonio S. Veloso and members of the 14th Sangguniang personally thanked and acknowledged Dr. Jeia Pondoc, head of the City Health Office, during the 14th Sangguniang Panlungsod’s regular session today. Dr. Pondoc admitted that the City Health Office is already overwhelmed with the rapidly rising number of positive cases. Despite having limited manpower because 14 of their employees were found Covid positive, they are still working double time to catch up with the contact tracing in order to contain the spread of the virus. Dr. Pondoc strongly advises Tagbilaranons to follow the health protocols. Only 2 private hospitals in the City allow admission of suspected Covid patients and they are already at full capacity. Currently, only GCGCMH and Don Emilio Hospital in Ubay, Bohol will admit COVID positive patients. Our Tagbilaran isolation centers are nearing full capacity. Most patients who have mild cases are advised to inform the CHO and undergo home quarantine. There have been reports complaining the lack of action of our frontliners but Dr. Pondoc belied these claims saying that they are monitoring symptomatic COVID patients, managing the contact tracing and handling the swab testing. However, considering that they lack the manpower, they advise households who wish to undergo swab test and have less than 10 members, to go directly to the Poblacion 2 covered court. Those with mild cases are advised to undergo home quarantine. Dr. Pondoc also said that the CHO will be relying heavily with the Barangay officials and the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) in monitoring these patients.Liga ng mga Barangay President Odysseus C. Glovasa, on behalf of the barangays, expressed that not all barangays have adequate number of BHERTS to do the monitoring considering that there is an increasing number of Covid positive patients. He also shared that most barangays do not have enough budget to purchase PPEs which are highly needed for BHERTS to do the monitoring. He requested for a joint committee meeting with the Committee on Health and Committee on Appropriations. Last 2020, the 14th Sangguniang Panlunsgod passed supplemental budgets, of which P 177 million were allotted for the COVID 19 response. Of the P 177 million, P20 million were sourced from the supposedly SP legislative building which the SP opted to postpone construction in order to address the pressing concern regarding COVID 19. This year, the City have already P 15 million for the vaccination. The 14th SP awaits the outcome of the joint committee meeting with the Committee on Barangay Affairs, Committee on Health and Committee Appropriation so that the body can act on their recommendation.Currently, the City has recorded 132 active cases as of April 14 at 8:00 am with their breakdown per barangay as shown above.