Operations at the City Administrator’s Office of the Mandaue City Hall will be suspended after an employee from the office tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), its chief said Monday.

City Administrator Atty. Jamaal James Calipayan said on his Facebook account that the employee, who was found positive for the disease on Sunday, is asymptomatic and has been transferred to the Mandaue City Central Isolation Center.

All staff working at the City Administrator’s Office including Calipayan are considered first generation contacts.

Decontamination procedures are being conducted, and all close contacts will be under home isolation. Those who will exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 will immediately undergo an RT-PCR test.

“Fortunately, based on the latest monitoring, all first generation contacts are currently asymptomatic,” Calipayan said.

The City Administrator’s Office of Mandaue will be designating an officer-in-charge and a skeleton receiving section.

“The usual processes of the office shall be halted momentarily until we will be cleared to return-to-work by the proper authorities,” Calipayan said.

This is the first COVID-19 case in Mandaue City involving a city hall employee.

The city currently has 556 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of this number, 352 are still active and mostly asymptomatic.