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GENERAL LUNA, Siargao Island (MindaNews / 7 July) – The Department of Health in the Caraga Region reported Monday that Siargao Island now has a second confirmed case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In a post on its Facebook page on Monday evening, the DOH Center for Health Development-Caraga reported 15 new cases in the region, one of them from the municipality of Sta. Monica, Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte. It is situated in the northern tip of Siargao Island.
But Santa Monica Mayor Fernando Dolar said the person referred to by DOH-Caraga is a returning overseas Filipino worker who has yet to come home to the island, now still confined at a health facility in Surigao City.
Dolar added that the patient arrived in Manila on June 22 and stayed there for five days, then flew to Mindanao via the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental.
It was not known how the patient travelled to Surigao City, but upon arriving there on June 27, the patient was swabbed for the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and found positive.
The mayor said the patient is asymptomatic.
Siargao’s first COVID-19 case, a local stranded individual who travelled from Cebu along with her two siblings, was reported last week.
Unlike the case in Sta. Monica, this patient was able to come home to the municipality of Del Carmen and went on home quarantine in her grandmother’s house.
The patient is now confined at the Surigao del Norte Provincial Hospital in the municipality of Placer. (Roel N. Catoto / MindaNews)
