CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 13 June) – Lanao del Sur’s COVID-19 cases have surged to 39 as of June 13, with 30 new cases from among those who returned home after nearly three months of being stranded in Manila and other areas.
This is the highest spike since more than a thousand residents started coming home on the first week of June, Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson of the Lanao del Sur Inter-Agency Task Force said. Adiong is a Member of Parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Adiong said the new cases bring to 39 the the total number of COVID-19 cases. He told MindaNews that Lanao del Sur’s “first wave” was nine cases and they had zero cases for 49 days until this record was broken by the surge of cases in what he describes as “second wave.”
At the regional level, Lanao del Sur remained top on the list of provinces of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) with the highest number of cases. According to the report of the Bangsamoro Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 Emergency Action Center, as of 6 p.m. on June 12, Lanao del Sur had 33 cases or 61.1% of the regional total of 54. Maguindanao recorded 16 cases, Basilan three, Sulu two and Tawi-tawi is the only BARMM area with no recorded COVID-19 case.
Adiong said all the patients found positive were based on the Xpert Express PCR tests.
All 30 active cases, he said, are asymptomatic.
Thirty new cases plus nine previous = 39 COVID-19 cases in Lanao del Sur. Infographic from the FB page of the Provincial Government of Lanao del Sur
Shiela Ganda of the Lanao del Sur Inter-Agency said aside from these new cases, there are 80 residents who tested positive of the rapid diagnostic tests when they arrived in Marawi City.
Ganda said all of the 80 residents are now in isolation awaiting results of their Xpert Express PCR tests at the Lanao del Sur provincial quarantine facility in Barangay Sagonsongan, Marawi City.
More than a thousand Lanao del Sur residents arrived in Laguindingan Airport on several flights last June 3, 5, 6 and 7 under the “Balik-Probinsiya, Bagong Pag-asa“ Program of the National government.
Ganda said the number of cases has already put a strain on the provincial quarantine facility converted from a housing project of Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr.
She said only 45 houses are ready for occupancy out of the 100-unit housing project.
Ganda said those waiting for their Xpert Express PCR test results have to share some of the houses.
“Three to five of them occupy one house because our facility is not enough to house all of them,” Ganda said.
The Facebook page of the Provincial Government of Lanao del Sur said 21 are in the provincial quarantine facility in Sagonsongan (13 from Marawi, five from Bayang, one from Butig, one from Taraka and one from Marantao) while the remaining nine are in the Community Quarantine Facilities (CQF): three in Marantao, three in Lumba Bayabao, one in Balindong, one in Saguiaran and one in Poona Bayabao. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
