Another coronavirus disease (COVID-19) frontliner has tested positive for the virus and the entire Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PRRMO) team of Pontevedra town in Negros Occidental has been placed in isolation as a precautionary measure, Mayor Jose Maria Alonso said yesterday.
Alonso said 125 households in Pontevedra have been locked down.
The 26-year-old male Pontevedra first responder was one of nine Negrenses and a Bacolod resident who were identified to have tested positive for COVID-19 by the Department of Health Saturday.
He is the second Negrense hit by COVID-19 through local transmission. The first case was a Negros Occidental PDRRMO ambulance driver. Both are quarantined at the EB Magalona healing center.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson is set to hold an online meeting with the Negros Occidental mayors to discuss COVID-19 concerns today, Charina Magallanes-Tan, Negros Occidental COVID-19 Incident Command Center spokesperson, said.
The return of all LSIs by land, air and sea to Negros Occidental has been cancelled this week.
The Pontevedra frontliner who tested positive for COVID-19 is a member of the DRRMO crew that brought a locally stranded individual (LSI) of the town to the EB Magalona healing center to undergo re-swabbing for a Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test , Fairy Grace Andrico, Pontevedra DRRMO head, said.
He was re-swabbed after his LSI companion from Binalbagan tested positive for the virus, she said.
The Pontevedra LSI who had been on home quarantine for two days tested positive for COVID-19 and the frontliner who is asymptomatic was later also confirmed to have the virus, Andrico said.
Andrico said she and 19 other Pontevedra DRRMO members and two nurses who were exposed to the 26-year-old frontliner are in isolation, and awaiting their RT-PCR test results.
Nine family members of the Pontevedra LSI and the frontliner have been tested for COVID-19 and quarantined, she added.
Three neighbors of the LSI have also been swabbed for RT-PCR testing, Andrico said, adding that contact tracing is ongoing.
Alonso said the policemen and firefighters of Pontevedra will temporarily carry out the functions of the town DRRMO team while they are in isolation.
Meanwhile, he said 100 households in Sitio Colonia, Barangay DSB, where the LSI is from, and 25 households in Purok Dos, Barangay Poblacion, where the frontliner is from have been locked down, Alonso said.
Alonso said they have requested that the test results of their PDRRMO team be prioritized for release by the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital laboratory so they can resume their functions if they tests negative.
Meanwhile, the eight other Negrenses who were announced to have tested positive for COVID-19 Saturday are locally stranded individuals who returned from Iloilo, Manila and Cebu.
Aside from the Pontevedra frontliner tagged as Patient No.113, the eight COVID-19 LSIs who are asymptomatic and quarantined are:
Patient No.110, a 31-year-old male from Manapla who returned from Iloilo;
Patient No. 111, a 28-year-old female from Toboso who returned from Manila;
Patient No. 112, a 20-year-old male from Toboso who returned from Manila;
Patient No. 114, a 17-year-old female from Calatrava who returned from Cebu;
Patient No. 115, a 31-year-old male from La Castellana who returned from Cebu;
Patient No. 116, a 21-year-old female from Calatrava from Cebu;
Patient No. 117, a 39-year-old male from Toboso who returned from Cebu; and
Patient No. 118, a 29-year-old male from Calatrava who arrived from Cebu.
The lone COVID-19 positive case from Bacolod Saturday, tagged as the city’s 52nd patient, is a 31-year-old female LSI who arrived from Manila on June 24.
She is from Barangay 1 but has been facility quarantined since her return, the City Health Office said.*
BY CARLA P. GOMEZ
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