{"id":258512,"date":"2020-06-18T07:39:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T11:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=258512"},"modified":"2020-06-18T07:39:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T11:39:26","slug":"15-mrt-3-workers-positive-with-covid-19-more-to-undergo-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/18\/15-mrt-3-workers-positive-with-covid-19-more-to-undergo-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"15 MRT-3 workers positive with Covid-19; more to undergo testing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a statement, the MRT-3 management said the 15 workers were part of Sumitomo-MHI-TESP (Sumitomo), the MRT-3\u2019s maintenance provider,. (File photo<\/a>: DOTr MRT-3\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0—\u00a0The Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) management on Thursday reported that 15 of the workers at its depot in North Avenue, EDSA have tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).<\/p>\n

In a statement, the MRT-3 management said the 15 workers were part of Sumitomo-MHI-TESP (Sumitomo), the MRT-3\u2019s maintenance provider,. As a precautionary measure, all personnel of both MRT-3 and Sumitomo at the North Avenue Depot will undergo rapid testing to be conducted by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who will test positive in the rapid anti-body testing will be required to undergo RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) confirmatory testing and to go on self-quarantine while waiting for the results of the confirmatory test,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Michael Capati, director for operations of the MRT-3, said that aside from testing all employees that had possible contact with those infected, the MRT-3 management has been conducting disinfection of the MRT-3 depot, its stations, and trains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to implement these and other measures to contain the spread of the virus in our workplace, stations, and trains,\u201d Capati said.<\/p>\n

After the most recent disinfection of the depot on Monday, he said the depot will undergo another disinfection.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the MRT-3 said that while there is \u201cvery limited\u201d interaction between depot and stations personnel, additional health and safety protocols will be implemented to further limit their interaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the best interest of our passengers and employees at heart. We want to immediately address the situation to prevent more people from contracting the disease,\u201d Capati said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, netizens expressed their apprehension on the continued operation of the MRT-3 following the news, with some asking for temporary suspension of the rail service.<\/p>\n

In a post on the MRT-3 Facebook page, a certain \u201cAhrwhil Lacaba\u201d commented that the operations of MRT-3 should be suspended temporarily to prevent further spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cDapat i-suspend na muna operation ng MRT habang konti pa lang infected. Huwag na sana hayaan magkahawaan<\/em>\u00a0(They should suspend the operation of the MRT while there still a small number of those infected. They should not let it spread further),\u201d Lacaba said.<\/p>\n

The MRT-3, Sumitomo last Thursday (June 11) reported that one of its depot personnel underwent an RT-PCR test and later was confirmed positive on Sunday, noting that the person last reported at the MRT-3 depot on June 8.<\/p>\n

On the same day, it said contact-tracing was conducted and found that 32 depot personnel had possible contact and all underwent testing the following day.<\/p>\n

Following the test, 14 were found to have contracted the respiratory disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cContact tracing is ongoing for the 14 Covid-19 positive depot personnel. Identified contacts have been advised to undergo self-quarantine and RT-PCR testing before going back to work at the MRT-3 depot,\u201d the MRT-3 said.<\/p>\n

It added that other measures were being conducted in adherence to guidelines set by the Department of Health such as screening for symptoms in every entrance of MRT-3 facilities, mandatory wearing of face masks, alternative work arrangements, regular disinfection of facilities, installation of sanitation stations, hygiene promotion, and physical distancing at the workplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0—\u00a0The Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) management on Thursday reported that 15 of the workers at its depot in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":202177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-raymond-carl-dela-cruz","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258513,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258512\/revisions\/258513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}