Some 187 patients were pinpointed to have been in contact with the lone recorded active coronavirus disease (COVID) 2019 case in the province, a Tagbilaran City health official said on Monday.
According City Health Officer Dr. Jeia Pondoc, all 187 contacts were subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests after the patient, a 65-year-old woman, tested positive for the disease on Thursday last week, June 4.
Results were still being awaited and may arrive in “seven to 10 days” but Pondoc said that all contacts were asymptomatic and placed under quarantine.
Swab samples were taken from them starting June 5.
The contacts included the patient’s family; neighbors in Purok 2, Barangay Dao in Tagbilaran City; some employees of government offices she visited and nurses and other health personnel at the barangay level and at the ACE Medical Center where she has been confined for almost two weeks.
“Ang among gi trace—mga May 24 nigawas iyang symptoms—so mo go back to og 14 days ana. Tanang naka contact niya from May 10 down to May 21, kani ang possible na asa niya nakuha,” she said.
The patient, a land broker, was noted to usually stay at home and only frequented the City Registry Office and Bureau of Internal Revenue offices.
Meanwhile, the Local Government Unit of Tagbilaran City has continued to reduce the radius of its lockdown as Pondoc said that they intend to now place only the patient’s residence and adjacent houses under the stringent quarantine measure.
The lockdown was initially imposed in the entire Purok 2 then it was reduced to only be in effect in several blocks surrounding the patient’s home.
“Karon siguro maghinay-hinay na sa lockdown kay nahuman naman gud og contract trace didto, so definitely sa Dao wala na miy e-contact trace didto,” Pondoc said.
The 65-year-old woman, along with a diseased 89-year-old man who died of severe myocardial infarction on May 26, was determined to be infected with COVID-19 based on test results released by the Department of Health on June 4.
The diseased COVID-stricken man was from Calape where contact-tracing efforts were also launched starting May 27. (R. Tutas)