ALL mass gatherings in the city of General Trias were temporarily postponed, including the conduct of face-to-face (F2F) graduation, amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the locality based on the post of Department of Education (DepEd) General Trias, July 7, 2022

City Health Office (CHO) here under Dr. Jonathan Luseco recommended the postponement of mass gatherings in their city, such as graduation and moving-up ceremonies.

“Na-postponed lang yung ilan po ng Monday at Tuesday due to sudden ‘spike’ ng cases po. Pero after mag-convene [ang] local IATF with Mayor Jon Jon Ferrer, nagkaroon po ng measures for stricter implementation ng minimum health standard. Plus other recommendations. Some schools opted for limited face-to-face, virtual walk-thru and other ways to minimize contact and exposure ng mga bata,” Dr. Luseco said in his text message to this correspondent.

According to Dr. Luseco, students are vulnerable to the disease because the Department of Education (DepEd) has not yet made the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for children.

He added that their main priority is public safety, which is why the General Trias CHO recommends that the end-of-school-year ceremonies be made virtual first.

In response, the city’s DepEd district office immediately released its rules on conducting end-of-year rites in the schools under their jurisdiction.

The City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU), under the CHO, gathered data about an “alarming” increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases in GenTri.

Certain measures have to be taken by the local city government to “ensure the health and safety of the people”.

As such, the School Division Office (SDO) General Trias adheres to the recommendation of CESU and is to be followed by all the schools.

All in-person and year-end events for both public and private institutions (moving-up ceremony, graduation, and recognition rites) are postponed the activities will be “virtual” instead, such as online or livestream.

All parents and students are not allowed to go to school to submit, return outputs, or learning modules.

Those who have not yet returned modules should communicate with the class adviser when the materials can be returned and subject to the approval of the school head.

Online transactions are encouraged for requests, queries of students and parents

As of July 8, 2022, General Trias has 70 active COVID-19 cases of a total of 19,770 confirmed cases based on the data posted by CESU.

Sixty-eight of them are in “strict home quarantine”, while two cases are admitted to hospital. 14 out of 33 barangays remains “Covid free”.

Based on DepEd GenTri, 8,125 children aged 5-11 are fully vaccinated out of 40,750 estimated population; 21,595 children aged 12-17 are fully vaccinated out of 33,166 population; 2,094 fully vaccinated individuals aged 18 and above out of 2,125 (students).