DUMAGUETE CITY – Another locally stranded individual (LSI) from Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental has tested positive of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a provincial health officer said on Wednesday.
The new case brought to three the number of LSIs in that northern city found to be infected with the coronavirus. They belong to the same group that returned from Cebu City last month.
In a press briefing, assistant provincial health officer Dr. Liland Estacion, who also heads the health committee of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) here, said the new positive case is a 38-year-old-female of Poblacion, Guihulngan City, whose swab test result arrived late Tuesday.
She is the latest addition to the active confirmed Covid-19 cases in Negros Oriental, bringing the total tally to 36 as of latest count, Estaction said.
The woman came from Barangay Pardo, Cebu City, where a high incidence of Covid-19 infection has been reported, Estacion said.
She said the latest confirmed case traveled together with the 79-year-old resident of Guihulngan City (Patient 1) and his son-in-law (Patient 2) onboard a vessel that arrived in the province last June 19, ferrying returning residents.
Those in the same group were immediately brought to their respective local government units (LGUs) for quarantine at government-designated facilities.
The septuagenarian first tested positive for Covid-19 sometime at the end of June, and his son-in-law was found infected in early July.
The woman (Patient 3) was due to end her 14-day quarantine on July 3 but it was extended and she was swabbed on July 7 after Patient 2 tested positive, Estacion said.
Health authorities are now contact tracing in a sub-village in Poblacion, Guihulngan that was placed on localized lockdown involving at least 10 households after it was reported that the woman came in contact with her family.
She was released upon completion of her mandatory 14-day quarantine but was recalled later for isolation when she turned positive of the virus.
Meanwhile, as of July 15, the confirmed Covid-19 positive cases in Negros Oriental have reached 61 since March.
The number includes three deaths, 22 recoveries, and 36 active cases, records at the Provincial Health Office showed. (PNA)
