GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Two more returning residents in Sarangani and South Cotabato provinces have tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), bringing the confirmed cases in Region 12 or Soccsksargen to 61 as of Monday night.
Arjohn Gangoso, health education and promotion officer of the Department of Health (DOH)-Region 12, said the patients were in stable condition and under strict isolation in undisclosed facilities.
“Both have a history of travel from Metro Manila,” he said in an advisory.
He said the patients, the 60th and 61st cases in the region, were confirmed positive of the disease based on the results of the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests released by the Dr. Arturo P. Pingoy Medical Center in Koronadal City.
Gangoso said the patient from Sarangani, the third for the area since Friday, was a 52-year-old female who arrived in the province last June 21.
The additional case in South Cotabato, the 17th for the province, was a 49-year-old male who returned home on June 12, he said.
He said the contact-tracing activities and other precautionary measures were already undertaken by concerned health workers for the two new Covid-19 patients.
Aside from the two additional positive cases, DOH-12 recorded five more recoveries among confirmed patients as of 6 p.m. Monday.
Listed as recovered were three patients from South Cotabato and one each in this city and Cotabato City. Four of them had traveled from Manila and one from Cebu.
Gangoso said the new recoveries in the region have so far reached a total of 38, with 14 recorded in Cotabato City, 13 in South Cotabato, five in North Cotabato, and two each in this city, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani.
Of the 61 cases in Soccsksargen, the confirmed death remained at one and 53 other suspected patients have died, with 49 testing negative and four with no specimen collected.
South Cotabato posted the most number of confirmed cases so far with 17, followed by Cotabato City with 15, Sultan Kudarat with 11, North Cotabato with nine, Sarangani with six, and this city with three. (PNA)
