Two schools in Region 8 suspend classes due to influenza virus

TACLOBAN CITY-At least two schools in Eastern Visayas have suspended their classes this week following the declaration of the Department of Health (DOH) that two persons in the region were found positive of Influenza A (H1N1) virus.

In consultation with the health department, school officials of the Philippine Science High School Eastern Visayas (PSHS-EV) Campus in Palo, Leyte were closed the other day after a 14-year-old junior student from this city were tested positive of the virus.

The students underwent home confinement since there’s no room available at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC), said Nicholas Bautista, chief of the regional epidiomology and surveillance unit of the DOH.

Classes will resume after 10 days. Health and school officials told the 355 students to stay in their homes and strictly observe precautionary measures. Dormitory occupants were told not to go home and were quarantined within the school promise.

“All contacts were under observation. The only thing that we can do now is to follow up the cases. We advised the students that this is not actually a vacation. They will stay in their homes for 10 days or if they have to go out, they have to wear masks,” Mr. Bautista told reporters Tuesday night.

The list of students and addresses was given to respective local health officials in a meeting yesterday so that they can monitor health status.

PSHS-EV acting campus director Joanne de la Cruz said that the patient made a direct contact with at least 90 students within the campus including the victim’s 30 classmates.

“About 10 classmates of the student infected got symptoms of influenza A and they were placed under observation. The rest of the third year students are under voluntary isolation,” Ms. de la Cruz told BusinessWorld.

Mr. Bautista said that they will go deeper as to what triggered the virus transmission since the child and the family has no contact with anybody who traveled outside the region or abroad, based on interrogation of school officials.

On the other hand, a seaman from Catbalogan, Samar was tested positive for the H1N1 virus and has been confined at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) in this city.

The seaman’s two elementary grade children have manifested symptoms of the flu and they were included in the list of cases under observation. The family members are students of Saint Mary School , a private school with elementary and secondary learners.

The 44-year-old seaman arrived in the country from Singapore last June 9 and developed a fever three days later.

“School administrators have agreed to suspend classes of that school for five days,” Mr. Bautista said.

The two family members were placed under observation. Swab samples will be taken from seaman’s children for submission to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Manila .

As of June 15, at least 15 persons have been tested with age ranging from 4 to 57 years old. Eleven of them are males and four are females. Eight are Filipinos and seven foreigners

All cases are mild, according to the health department but they’ve been emphasizing to local officials to be vigilant and be prepared because they cannot predict future infestation.

The Tacloban City school division office has deployed medical team to both public and private schools to regularly check the health conditions of learners.

The DOH Interim Guidelines Nos. 10 and 14 on H1N1 cases, the school had to impose a 10-day suspension of classes to allow the students and the school personnel to comply with the 10-day home confinement to contain the virus. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)

Expansion plans being drawn up for Robinsons Land’s newly opened mall in Tacloban

published June 16, 2009 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN — Robinsons Land Corp. is already planning to build a hotel and expand next year with last week’s opening of a new mall here.

Frederick D. Go, Robinsons Land president and chief operating officer, said the hotel, which will have 100 rooms, will be built near the mall and within the company’s four-hectare property.

"The mall is just the first phase of our development. We still have land available around the mall to expand. The economy is not bad and we think that the mall will do very well here in Tacloban," he told reporters during the opening of Robinsons Place Tacloban.

Lance Y. Gokongwei, president and chief operating officer of Robinsons Land’s parent company JG Summit Holdings, Inc., said in a separate interview that the good business climate and increasing demand for air travel to and from Tacloban prompted the Gokongwei group to include Leyte in its expansion plans.

"I think the city has been progressive. Even flights of Cebu Pacific have increased. There’s a lot of demand for travel to Tacloban and Region 8. Two to three years ago, we were only doing two [flights] a day. Now, we are going four flights daily from Manila and once to Cebu. That’s a reflection of the economy progressing," said Mr. Gokongwei, who is also president and chief executive officer of budget airline Cebu Pacific Air.

He said Robinsons Land was upbeat about expanding the mall business this year despite the global crisis.

"The global financial crisis affects everybody. It’s really just managing to grow despite that. We’ve been very positive about provincial expansion," Mr. Gokongwei said.

Robinsons Land, the real estate arm of JG Summit, earlier reported an 11% increase in earnings for the first half of its 2009 fiscal year due to strong revenues from mall operations.

In a statement, Robinsons Land said its income for the first six months of the fiscal year hit P1.62 billion.

Prior to the opening of Robinsons Place Tacloban, Robinsons Cybergate Mall Davao was opened. Part of this year’s expansion is the opening of commercial centers in General Santos, Dumaguete, and Ilocos Norte. - Sarwell Q. Meniano