TACLOBAN City - Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone has announced that the province is now free from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) after all their confirmed cases have recovered Friday, July 3.
"Our second confirmed case, Patient EV 431 from Borongan City is now officially recovered. EV 431 is on home quarantine in Tacloban City," he shared.
Patient EV 431 was a health worker assigned in Tacloban City. He was known to have contacted the virus after his visit to his hometown.
The province now has zero active COVID-19 cases after its first case from Mercedes town (EV 148) was discharged from the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center here.
Patient EV 148 was a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from Singapore.
Eastern Samar, which is under the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), has the least number of cases among the provinces and cities in the region. It has only recorded two among the 577 COVID-19 cases in Eastern Visayas. It has maintained its COVID-free status until June 13, due to the arrival of returning residents.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG-8) has stopped the travel of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) to Eastern Samar starting Friday, June 26, until July 9, based on a joint resolution submitted by the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (RIATF-MEID) and the Regional Task Force for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (RTF COVID 19) to give time for local government units to vacate and disinfect quarantine facilities.
The province enforces strict border control points in the municipalities of Lawaan and Taft, as well as Borongan, Eastern Samar.