CHO denies wake held for ‘expired’ COVID-19 patient

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – The City Health Office here denied that a funeral wake was held for a 69-year old patient who may have died of the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 last April 9, 2020.

The CHO posted a medical report to refute posts on social media that a wake was held for a day at the patient’s house, causing panic in the neighborhood.

The patient died before his positive test result for COVID-19 was released.

The CHO said the eighth COVID-19 patient in the city was buried right after he expired.

The health office also said that the patient from Purok Sabes, Barangay Villamonte had no travel history.

He suffered from diarrhea from April 6-8, 2020 and difficulty of breathing on April 8, 2020 and was admitted to the Dona Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital on April 9 for difficulty of breathing.

The patient expired around 10:30 p.m. of the same day.

“A swab was collected by the CHO per request of the attending physician and the body was wrapped in white impermeable plastic with tape around and labelled ‘infectious,’ then brought to the hospital morgue,” the CHO report said.

The cadaver was pulled out from the hospital morgue on April 10 by a funeral home service and brought to the Bacolod City Cemetery for burial also on the same day.

“The remains were disinfected before burial and the family prayers were done at home without it,” the CHO official report further said.

On April 11 the specimen was sent to the biolab in Iloilo City and on April 21 the result came out positive.

The CHO also said that on April 21 and 22, the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office disinfected the areas of the patient’s residence in Purok Sabes as well as the hospital.

So far, members of the household and 13 health workers were subjected to rapid tests, where a nurse, who is three months pregnant, tested positive.

Their specimens were sent to the DOH biolab for further tests.