By Glazyl Masculino
BACOLOD CITY - The provincial government of Negros Oriental confirmed on Wednesday evening that a resident has tested positive for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).
Bimbo Miraflor, public information officer of the provincial government, in a press briefing, said they received the result of the patient’s swab test from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) on Wednesday afternoon.
Miraflor said the patient is the 39th confirmed case for COVID-19 in the country.
He said the patient will still have to undergo a confirmatory test after 48 hours.
Miraflor said they already started the contact tracing with people whom the patient has interacted with.
He also said that they already have flight manifests of those who travelled with the patient from Manila to Dumaguete.
The provincial government had asked assistance from the police to help them in the contact-tracing.
Miraflor appealed to those who were in close contact with the patient to submit themselves voluntarily for medical examination if they manifest flu-like symptoms.
Dr. Liland Estacion, provincial health officer and COVID-19 provincial task force incident commander, said the patient has severe pneumonia and was isolated in a private hospital.
Estacion said the patient went to Manila on February 28 to attend a meeting, and went home to Dumaguete City on March 1.
Six days later, he consulted a doctor in one of the hospitals in the province and was advised to be confined for a respiratory infection, she added.
Estacion is appealing to the public not to spread false information to create panic and fear.
Despite the confirmed case in the province, authorities said they cannot consider it yet as a local transmission because it might be epidemiologically due to his travel history.
She urged the people not to panic because the government is on top of the situation.
He also appealed to them to follow the protocols and guidelines of the Department of Health (DOH).