Guimaras remains COVID-free

The island province of Guimaras remains free of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after two Locally Stranded Individuals (LSIs) at the Guimaras Advance Quarantine Facility tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The 25-year-old female from Nueva Valencia town and the 27-year-old male from San Lorenzo were released from a quarantine facility in Iloilo City last July 12, 2020 sans their RT-PCR test result after staying at the facility for 17 days.

Hours after they arrived in Guimaras, the Department of Health Western Visayas released a COVID-19 bulletin indicating that two LSIs from Guimaras were positive for COVID-19.

The LSIs were immediately transferred to the Advance Quarantine Facility of the province and underwent RT-PCR test on July 13, 2020.

The Provincial Health Office immediately initiated contact-tracing.

On July 14, 2020, QualiMed Hospital released the result of the second RT-PCR test of the two LSIs which were negative.

Governor Samuel T. Gumarin said the decision to release the LSIs before the release of the test results was based on the guidelines of the Department of Health.

Department of Health advisory released on July 10, 2020 states that “Asymptomatic close contacts or individuals belonging to identified sub-groups (LSIs, OFWs, APOR) can be released from quarantine after 14 days as long as he/she remains asymptomatic for the entire quarantine period, even without testing or test results”.