The Department of Health report on North Cotabato’s first confirmed 2019 coronavirus disease case.
COTABATO CITY – Health and local officials on Monday confirmed North Cotabato’s first 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive patient who has travel history to a cockfighting event in Davao City.
Immediately thereafter, North Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco has ordered the intensification of contact tracing of persons who came in close contact with a 46-year-old male now confined in North Cotabato isolation facility in Barangay Amas, Kidapawan City.
Catamco said provincial and municipal health officials are currently tracing people he had mingled with since returning home from a cockfighting event in Davao City.
“We also air this appeal for those who talked with or having a close conversation with the victim so our health front-liners can assist them,” Catamco said in a statement.
Dr. Philbert Malaluan, provincial board member and spokesperson of North Cotabato’s inter-agency task force on Covid-19, said the governor's appeal was specifically addressed to the patient’s neighbors and other residents so they can undergo quarantine under close monitoring by health officials.
Several attendees to the cockfighting derby in Matina Gallera in Davao City on March 6-13 have died while a few others have been confirmed to have acquired the virus. (PNA)
