COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 25 March) – After two weeks inside the isolation room of the Cotabato Regional Medical Center here, a patient who was tested positive of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been discharged and sent home by health authorities.
Dr. Dims Dimatingkal, chief of the professional medical staff of the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) in Cotabato City, gives a thumbs up sign inside a misting tent to be used in disinfecting all medical staff and visitors of the hospital. The new misting tent was among several personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies donated by the Bangsamoro Region to augment the dwindling supplies of CRMC in the fight against COVID-19. MindaNews photo by FERDINANDH CABRERA
“Our positive case is already discharged, already resolved … and alive,” Dr. Helen Yambao, CRMC chief of hospital, said in an ambush interview.
However, she said, four more patients categorized as Persons Under Investigation (PUIs) are now confined in isolation at the CRMC.
“We have four PUIs, but they are all stable,” she added.
Yambao said Patient 145 (PH145) was reunited with his family over the weekend.
The hospital chief refused to further reveal other details of the patient except by happily announcing he has recovered.
PH145 was one of the 215 Filipino Muslim religious leaders who attended a Tabligh gathering in Malaysia from February 27 to March 1 where 16,000 people attended, 1,500 of them foreigners.
The event held inside a mosque was reported to be the source of most of the COVID-19 infection in Malaysia.
One of the 215 religious leaders in the Malaysia gathering died at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City on Tuesday, according to BARMM Member of Parliament Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson of the provincial task force on COVID-19 in Lanao del Sur.
Adiong said the patient died before the laboratory test result of his throat swab arrived, which was positive.
Nineteen other Filipino Muslim preachers are held in various hospitals in Malaysia due to COVID-19 infection. (Ferdinandh Cabrera / MindaNews)