DUMAGUETE CITY – A joint expanded contact tracing is now underway to determine the source of transmission of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which has afflicted a 39-year-old woman from Barangay Bagacay here.
Capitol Public Information Officer Bimbo Miraflor said Wednesday afternoon that there are two Contact Tracing Teams from the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (RESU) of the Department of Health (DOH) and the City Health Unit, and the Provincial Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (PESU) of the Provincial Health Office.
“All relevant information gathered shall be forwarded to the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of DOH 7 for analysis and official findings whether or not it is a local or community transmission,” Miraflor said.
The woman, her husband, and their six-year-old child are now under quarantine while a portion of Bagacay, specifically Malangsuba area where the family resides, is currently under tight security with controlled movement to stem a possible spread of the coronavirus.
City Health Officer Dr. Maria Sarah Talla said earlier that they have to determine if the case is a local transmission or community-acquired, as the woman does not have a history of travel.
The patient first went to the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH) here on May 23 and was diagnosed with shortness of breath and diarrhea so she was admitted and throat-swabbed for Covid-19 testing.
She was treated for “community-acquired pneumonia/moderate risk” and was diagnosed “Covid-19 unlikely”, a statement from the city’s IATF Covid-19 had said.
On May 29, the patient was discharged from the hospital ahead of the specimen result, as she was already asymptomatic but was referred to the city health office for home quarantine and monitoring.
On June 3, the throat swab test result arrived from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu, showing that the female patient was Covid-19 positive.
A repeat swab test was run on her on June 4, although the result has not yet arrived as of this writing.
Health officials here do not want to speculate on the source of the transmission, saying that they are exhausting all efforts to back-trace the persons that the woman had come in contact with, Miraflor said. (PNA)
