DAGUPAN CITY – The city government here will require all fish vendors and their helpers at the Magsaysay fish market to undergo coronavirus disease (Covid-19) rapid test after one of the vendors tested positive for the virus.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mayor Marc Brian Lim said those who will refuse a rapid test will no longer be allowed to sell at the fish market.
“The City Health Office (CHO) will set up a triage. When the fish market re-opens on Friday (September 11), traders, buyers, consignacion operators entering the area will have to undergo a rapid test unless they can show a negative result of a rapid test they underwent in the past two weeks. They will be allowed to enter (the market) if the result is negative,” he said.
The city will also be implementing mandatory wearing of face mask and face shield even for market-goers, while the Dagupan City Police Station was directed to strictly guard the entrances of the fish market, he said.
In a recent interview, Dr. Ophelia Rivera, the city’s Covid-19 focal person, said they prepared test kits for 100 persons but only 27 volunteered to undergo rapid tests, seven of them turned-out ‘reactive.’
Swab samples were immediately taken from the seven for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
The CHO conducted a rapid test for Magsaysay fish market vendors and their helpers on September 7.
The fish market will be temporarily closed from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on September 10 for disinfection.
Fish dealers and traders from other parts of Pangasinan and outside the province as far as Metro Manila and neighboring provinces regularly do business at the Magsaysay fish market.