We have traced people that had once come in close contact with COVID-19 positive patients.Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA) - The Pekanbaru government, Riau, is conducting mass swab testing for the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at regional government agencies after the Regional Financial Asset Management Board’s (BPKAD’s) 12 employees tested positive for the virus.
"We have traced people that had once come in close contact with COVID-19 positive patients," Zaini Rizaldy Saragih, acting chief of the Pekanbaru Health Office, stated here on Wednesday.
After the 12 BPKAD employees were found to have contracted the virus, the COVID-19 team applied health protocols at the BPKAD office and temporarily closed it for the purpose of sterilization, he remarked.
"After the 12 BPKAD employees tested positive for COVID-19, for the time being, the office is being sterilized, and its employees are undergoing mass swab testing," he remarked.
On Tuesday (August 18), acting secretary of the Pekanbaru city administration Muhammad Jamil confirmed the mass swab testing held at the yard of the Public Service Mall (MPP) in the capital of Riau Province.
"We have conducted swab tests (on other BPKAD employees), including the chief of the finance sub-division and chief of the program sub-division at each OPD (regional apparatus organization)," he noted.
The mass swab testing is aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 in the city, he remarked.
The city reported 28 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, August 15, 2020, including one employee of the BPKAD.
Currently, the COVID-19 task force team has conducted swab tests on 86 BPKAD employees, of which 12 had tested positive for COVID-19.
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Translator: Vera Lusiana/Suharto
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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