Transients among new COVID-19 patients

By Emme Rose Santiagudo

Two individuals who are from outside Western Visayas but working in the city and province of Iloilo tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to the Department of Health-Center for Health Development Western Visayas (DOH-CHD 6) on Thursday.
The two cases are among the 10 new cases reported by DOH-CHD in Region 6, mostly repatriated Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs).

The ten new cases include natives of San Carlos City, Pangasinan and Cebu City.

Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te, medical coordinator for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases of DOH-CHD 6, said the 38-year-old male from Pangasinan is a police officer assigned in Iloilo City.

“He is a police officer assigned in Iloilo City. He arrived on June 9 and was swabbed on the same day. He is currently asymptomatic and under facility quarantine in Iloilo City,” Te said in a phone interview.

Meanwhile, the 37-year-old male from Cebu City is a driver of delivery truck whose work destination is Calinog, Iloilo.

“He was working as a driver of delivery trucks. The patient arrived in Calinog on June 6 and was swabbed upon the request of the local government of Calinog as part of their initiative of testing all arriving transient individuals,” she said.

Te said the patient is currently asymptomatic and under facility quarantine in Calinog, Iloilo.

While the two new cases were detected in Western Visayas, they will be tagged to their home regions.

“Diri sila ginswab but they are not residents of Western Visayas. We cannot tag them here. We are reporting our confirmed cases here in the region based on their place of residency,” Te said.

Meanwhile, Region 6 recorded eight new additional COVID-19 cases on Thursday, mostly repatriates.

Two of the new cases include a 38-year-old female from Bacolod City (WV Patient No. 157) and a 30-year-old male from Hinigaran, Negros occidental (WV Patient No. 158) who are considered locally stranded individuals. They are all asymptomatic and currently facility quarantined.

Six other new cases are OFW repatriates:

-a 37-year-old male from Bacolod City (WV Patient No. 159);

-a 40-year-old male from Bacolod City (WV Patient No. 160);

-a 38-year-old male from Bacolod City (WV Patient No. 161);

-a 35-year-old male from Bacolod City (WV Patient No. 162);

-a 44-year-old male from Oton, Iloilo (WV Patient No. 163); and

-a 22-year-old male from Miag-ao, Iloilo (WV Patient No. 164).

The six repatriates are asymptomatic and under facility quarantine.

The total cases in the region spiked to 164 with 47 active cases, 106 recoveries, and 11 deaths.

Repatriates infected with COVID-19 also jumped to 81.