SECOND COVID-19 CASE. A 63-year-old male from Calbayog City in Samar is the second confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 in Eastern Visayas, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday (March 31, 2020). DOH 8 (Eastern Visayas) Director Minerva Molon said the second patient has a recent travel history to Metro Manila where he contracted the virus before returning to his hometown in Calbayog City on March 8. (Google image)
TACLOBAN CITY – A 63-year-old male from Calbayog City in Samar is the second confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the Eastern Visayas region, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday.
DOH 8 (Eastern Visayas) Director Minerva Molon said the second patient has a recent travel history to Metro Manila where he contracted the virus before returning to his hometown in Calbayog City on March 8.
The patient, who has been suffering from dry cough, was set to be transferred to the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center on Tuesday from a hospital in Calbayog City due to “high-risk health conditions.”
He was twice admitted to a private hospital from March 21 to 25 due to flu-like symptoms.
“There is no local transmission in the region since the first and second cases are not related. They came from different places in the National Capital Region and they had no contacts when they returned home,” Molon said.
The DOH also reported that the second sample of the first confirmed case, a 51-year-old female from Catarman, Northern Samar, had turned negative and also asymptomatic. She was discharged on Tuesday and advised to undergo home isolation for 14 days for further observation.
People who have been identified as patients under investigation (PUIs) in Catarman town for having close contact with the first confirmed Covid-19 patient have turned out to be negative for the disease as well.
The health department received on Monday 30 samples of suspected Covid-19 carriers in the region from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center testing laboratory. All of them have tested negative for the disease except for the patient from Calbayog City.
The news about the new confirmed case has caused panic in Calbayog, a major commercial district in northwestern Samar near the border with Northern Samar.
In a statement, Mayor Ronaldo Aquino asked Calbayog residents to stay at home as local authorities step up efforts to fight the spread of Covid-19 in the city.
“I urge the public to stop posting and sharing wrong information on social media about this issue. I will order the police to put you in jail and face the consequences. Don’t add fuel to the fire and stay at home,” he said.
Aquino is expected to issue an order that would close the borders of the city to non-residents, as recommended by the inter-agency task force.
The city government has earlier identified a facility to be used as a holding area for PUIs should their number in the city increase.
The region has 397 PUIs, with 13 admitted in hospitals and 384 in home isolation. It also has 11,560 persons under monitoring as of Monday.
The health department continues to remind the public to practice social distancing, personal hygiene, proper handwashing, and cough etiquette. (PNA)
