The Ministry of Health-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Covid-19 case bulletin as Sept. 6, 2020.
COTABATO CITY – An official of Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) on Monday has noted the improving recovery rate of patients in the past several days.
“I am confident the number of patients recovering from the disease may still increase,” Mohd Asnin Pendatun, speaking for BARMM-IATF, said, referring to the current 72 percent recovery rate of Covid-19 patients.
Pendatun noted that on Sunday, the BARMM’s Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 34 patients having recovered from the virus, raising the total number of recoveries to 514 since March this year.
Also on Sunday, 10 new cases were reported, raising the total number of patients across the region to 717 with 183 active cases. Of the 10 new cases, five were from Marawi City, three in Lanao del Sur, and two in Tawi-Tawi.
Twenty have died so far due to the disease after two patients expired in Tawi-Tawi, also on Sunday.
Pendatun, who is also BARMM Cabinet Secretary, said local transmission currently occurs only in Lanao del Sur.
“No local transmission has been monitored in other parts of the region. What we have is that the virus was contracted by locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and unknowingly brought them here in the region,” Pendatun said.
He said LSIs and the ROFs (Returning Overseas Filipinos) were major contributors to rising Covid-19 cases in the region.
“Hopefully, with the resumption of ‘Hatid Tulong’, this will no longer be the case,” Pendatun said, referring to the program where the government transport people stranded in high-risk areas back to their home provinces.
Pendatun also said that the frequency of people getting the virus has slowed down as compared in the past two months when an average of 30 people were infected with the virus in a day.
“Now we only have single-digit of infections a day, or the most are ten in the past five days,” he said. (PNA)
