Maasim, Sarangani Mayor Zyrex Pacquiao (Photo screen grab of live public address)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY – A public hospital in Maasim town, Sarangani province was placed on preemptive lockdown after a resident who died on Monday of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) was traced to have earlier visited the facility.
Maasim Mayor Zyrex Pacquiao confirmed on Tuesday that the female patient underwent consultation in their municipal hospital a day before turning out positive of the disease on Sunday.
He said the patient was brought to the municipal isolation facility last Saturday due to suspected symptoms of Covid-19 and transferred the following day to the St. Elizabeth Hospital here, where she died Monday morning.
The patient, a household helper, was the first Covid-19 fatality in the province.
The mayor said they immediately closed down the municipal hospital to new admissions and restricted the movement of existing patients as well as its personnel.
He said the medical consultations and other outpatient services of the facility were temporarily transferred to the Municipal Health Office.
“The hospital staff and current patients will undergo swab collection for RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing on Sept. 2 (Wednesday),” Pacquiao said in an interview.
Aside from the hospital, he said they implemented a cluster lockdown in Purok 4-B of Barangay Colon, where the deceased patient had worked.
He said at least 32 persons who were traced to have had direct contact with the woman are now undergoing quarantine.
The mayor said they are still determining how the latter got infected with Covid-19 since she had no reported travel history outside the municipality.
“This is actually a challenge for our contact-tracers right now,” he said.
Pacquiao added that they already tightened their borders to prevent the possible spread of Covid-19 from nearby localities. (PNA)
