The city hall building of General Santos City. (PNA GenSan file photo)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Health authorities here allayed concerns on Wednesday over the case of a confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patient who has yet to fully recover after nearly two months in isolation.
Dr. Lobert Padua, infectious diseases specialist and consultant of the City Inter-Agency Task Force (CIATF) for the Management of Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases, said the female patient turned out positive in seven repeat Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.
However, Padua said the patient--the third confirmed case in the city--was in stable condition and already recovered from her symptoms.
Citing previous observations of the Department of Health, he said the positive result was due to the remnants of the dead virus detected through the PCR test and did not necessarily mean that the patient was still infectious.
“There were actually cases wherein traces of the virus were still found in PCR tests even after 12 weeks,” Padua told reporters.
Based on a profile of Covid-19 patients released by the city government, the 22-year-old locally-stranded individual (LSI) returned home from Cebu last May 31 and tested positive for Covid-19 a week later.
As of Wednesday morning, the confirmed Covid-19 cases in the city has already reached a total of 35, with seven recoveries--all involving LSIs, returning overseas Filipinos, and authorized persons outside of residence.
Three of the cases were only confirmed on Tuesday evening: a 20-year-old female who arrived from Davao City last July 7, and a 28-year-old male and 37-year-old female who returned home from Manila on July 13 and 20, respectively.
Dr. Ryan Aplicador, CIATF deputy commander, said the city has not yet recorded any case of local transmission and doing everything to maintain such status.
Aplicador said the Covid-19 Center at the local government-run Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Hospital currently manages eight of the 28 active cases, but six of them were already asymptomatic and two with mild symptoms.
The other patients are confined in other private hospitals while those asymptomatic are under close monitoring in selected isolation centers.
Aplicador said the CIATF is currently discussing the shift to the new recovery criteria adopted by the DOH, which tags patients with mild or no symptoms as recovered 14 days from the onset of symptoms or by the date of specimen collection. (PNA)
