GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 02 July) – Another returning resident of Sarangani province has tested positive for Covid-19, increasing the confirmed cases in the area to seven.
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The additional Covid-19 case, the fourth for the province in the last six days, was confirmed in a situation report released on Wednesday night by the Department of Health (DOH)-Region 12.
It said the patient, a 31-year-old male Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) from Kiamba town, who is in “stable condition” had history of travel from Metro Manila and returned home via a “sweeper” flight to this city last June 16.
Engr. Shiela Corpuz, head of the Kiamba Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), said Thursday the patient arrived in Manila from Dubai, United Arab Emirates last June 11 and was immediately subjected to temporary quarantine.
She said the latter tested negative in the mandatory Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test for Covid-19 and was allowed to travel home on June 16 through a special Philippine Airlines flight.
The official said the overseas worker, a seafarer, was brought directly by their personnel to the designated municipal quarantine facility upon arrival.
On June 26, the OFW was subjected to rapid antibody test and turned out positive for Covid-19. He was subjected to swab collection on June 29 for RT-PCR test and the result also came out positive.
“The patient was asymptomatic since his arrival has been well-contained in our centralized quarantine facility,” Corpuz said in a report.
She said the latter had no contact with anyone from the public, including family members and relatives, from the start of his quarantine.
The four workers from the MDRRMO and the Municipal Health Office, and a locally-stranded individual who had direct contact with patient during the travel from the city airport to Kiamba will be subjected to RT-PCR test, she said.
Corpuz said local government is currently preparing to transfer the Covid-19 patient to anew isolation facility for positive cases and will be “monitored by health staff with established safety duty scheme.”
The latest Covid-19 case has brought the active infections in Sarangani to five. Two other patients, one of them a returning OFW, have already recovered.
Based on the DOH-12’s Covid-19 tracker as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, the region’s confirmed cases were now at 62, with one death and 39 recoveries.
South Cotabato recorded the most number of cases with 17, followed by Cotabato City with 15, Sultan Kudarat with 11, North Cotabato with 9, Sarangani with seven and this city with three. (MindaNews)
