ZAMBOANGA CITY – The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections here has increased to 145, as local health authorities confirmed three new cases.
The three have been identified as ZC143, ZC144, and ZC145, an advisory from the local Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Covid-19 said Tuesday.
Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, chairperson of the local IATF on Covid-19, said Wednesday that ZC143 and ZC144 were part of a group of 60 inmates who were released from the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center (ZCRC) on May 10.
Salazar said the swab samples collected from the group on May 5 were not immediately tested because of the unavailability of reagents.
She said the 60 inmates were re-swabbed on May 11 and the specimens were processed at the government-owned Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC) using the genexpert test.
Salazar said the May 13 results showed that 30 of them tested positive for the virus while the other half tested negative.
However, she said ZC143 and ZC144 belonged to the group with negative results.
They turned out positive when their swab samples were again tested at the Department of Agriculture-ZCMC Covid-19 testing laboratory when it became operational on May 18.
Results of the tests on ZC143 and ZC144 were only made public late Tuesday by the local IATF on Covid-19.
Salazar said ZC143 and ZC144 are now part of the confirmed Covid-19 recoveries but remain at the isolation facility of the Zamboanga Economic Zone (Zamboecozone) to complete their quarantine.
Meanwhile, she said ZC145 is an 18-year old boy from Barangay Baliwasan who was admitted to the ZCMC on Monday and died on the same day.
Salazar said the positive test result of the patient came out Tuesday.
Contact tracing is ongoing while the area where the patient resided has been placed on lockdown, she said. (PNA)
