COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 10 June) – Two policemen and a returning overseas Filipino worker (OFW) are among the latest positive coronavirus disease cases now being strictly monitored in the city’s Ligtas COVID-19 isolation center.
Dr. Meyasser Patadon, the city health chief, confirmed that the two policemen were found to be positive after a rapid test conducted to the city’s frontliners.
Cotabato City is conducting rapid test to 250 policemen assigned in the city. On Wednesday, the testing will be conducted for personnel of Station 4.
The two were reportedly tested again with confirmatory reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and still showed positive results.
“We cannot say that it’s a local contamination yet. We are still tracing and investigating it thoroughly,” Patadon said.
The infected policemen, aged 34 and 41, are both assigned in one station. They have done work in checkpoints, in the police station, and other usual police routine.
They are both asymptomatic and in stable condition in the isolation facility, according to Patadon.
One of them is a resident of Parang, Maguindanao, who used to travel home every other day after his office hours in the city.
The other new case is a 40-year-old female OFW who availed of the mercy flight from Manila to General Santos City, arriving last May 6.
She joined the group of locally stranded individuals and returning OFWs who were fetched by the provincial government of Maguindanao.
The OFW, like the new arrivals, was thus tested in Maguindanao, Patadon said. When her results showed she was COVID-19-positive, only then did she say that she was actually a resident of Cotabato City.
Maguindanao province then endorsed the patient to the Cotabato City local government for her isolation and recovery process.
As of today, Cotabato City has 13 positive cases of COVID-19.
The previous 10 have reportedly already recovered. (Ferdinandh Cabrera / MindaNews)
