KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 25 June) – At least 30 individuals, including two doctors and 21 health personnel in a private hospital here, were placed under strict community quarantine after their exposure to an 84-year old male who tested positive of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), a local official said.
Mayor Joseph Evangelista said the doctors and the health personnel were confined at the Kidapawan City Quarantine Center for 14 days while awaiting results of their Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
Landmark in Kidapawan, North Cotabato. MIndaNews file photo by BOBBY TIMONERA
The patient, a resident of Estanol Subdivision, Barangay Sudapin here, had a checkup at a hospital on Monday but was referred after a few hours to the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.
He was confined at the intensive care unit and then underwent an RT-PCR test which showed he was positive for the virus.
Evangelista said that during the patient’s brief checkup at a hospital here he already manifested shortness of breath.
On Wednesday, the mayor placed under “focused containment” or partial lockdown the street leading to the Estanol Subdivision.
Seven of the patient’s immediate family members were told to stay at home and forbidden to leave the place, he said.
He added the patient’s family members may request for food and medicine from the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team or any barangay health worker.
On Thursday, Evangelista met with officials of Barangay Amas after a 20-year old male resident who volunteered as a frontliner for North Cotabato’s Task Force Sagip Stranded tested positive for Covid-19.
They have yet to decide if the barangay would also be placed under “focused containment”.
He had an exposure to a 38-year old female from Tulunan town in North Cotabato who was among the 197 locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) the provincial government rescued on June 16.
The LSI from Tulunan also tested positive for Covid-19 and she could have infected the volunteer, said Dr. Philbert Malaluan, head of the Incident Command Post of the provincial government.
Both the frontliner and the LSI from Tulunan town were placed under strict monitoring at the University of Southern Mindanao Hospital in Kabacan, North Cotabato. They were in stable condition and had undergone their second RT-PCR tests, Malaluan said. (Malu Cadeliña-Manar/MindaNews)
