BEATING THE VIRUS. Dr. Elizabeth Samama, Maguindanao health chief, speaks during the inauguration of Ligtas Covid-19 Center in Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao on Monday (Sept. 7, 2020). Maguindanao has registered a 94-percent recovery rate with 94 of its 100 patients recuperated from the disease since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in the province in March this year. (Photo courtesy of IPHO-Maguindanao)
COTABATO CITY – Maguindanao is slowly winning the fight against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a ranking health official in the province said Tuesday.
Dr. Elizabeth Samama, Maguindanao provincial health chief and head of the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), said the province only recorded one confirmed patient since Aug. 31 "but unfortunately, five more were added" recently.
“We almost had a zero case but five new cases were reported on Sunday night and Monday morning,” Samama said.
Cumulative confirmed Covid-19 patients in the province since March this year totaled 100 with 94 recoveries, for a 94-percent recovery rate.
Samama said the recovery of 34 police officers from the disease at the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Parang town on Sept. 4 was “Maguindanao’s biggest single-day achievement.”
The recovery of the policemen also led to the lifting of the localized lockdown of the police’s Regional Training Center inside the PRO-BARMM camp, where the infected cops stayed until they completed their month-long isolation and got healed.
Of the five new cases in Maguindanao, one was a town councilor of South Upi, Maguindanao, who was exposed to a Covid-19 patient in Cotabato City. The town official is now isolated at the Maguindanao isolation center in Shariff Aguak town and is in stable condition.
Also currently isolated is a municipal government employee in Datu Abdullah Sangki and three others from the towns of Pandag, Parang, and Datu Odin Sinsuat.
Around the region, nine new cases were also reported on Monday, raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases in BARMM to 726 since March this year.
Of the 726 confirmed cases, 192 are active and 514 have recovered for a 71-percent recovery rate as of Monday, a report from the Ministry of Health–BARMM, said. The total death toll was at 21, the report said. (PNA)
