BACOLOD CITY - A health worker’s father is the second fatality of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Negros Occidental.

The fatality was a 62-year-old man from Silay City, who passed away on August 5.
Mayor Mark Golez, in a media interview on Friday, said the senior citizen was also the first COVID-19 fatality in the city.
Golez said the fatality, tagged as Patient No. 23, got infected by the virus after his daughter, who is a nurse working in Bacolod, was first diagnosed with COVID-19. Both of them were symptomatic, he added.
On August 3, the fatality started exhibiting COVID symptoms, and was admitted to a government hospital in Bacolod City.
The following day, his reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test came out, indicating he was positive of the virus. He was then isolated, but he expired the next day.
Golez said three households in the area of residence of the fatality were already sealed off.
The local chief executive also said that the elderly man’s wife also tested positive for COVID-19, and is now recovering from the infection at the city’s healing center, along with her daughter.
He said the family’s case can be considered a local transmission. Contact tracing was ongoing, he added.
The city has a total of 30 COVID-19 cases, as of August 7, the mayor said.
Meanwhile, the province has a total of 554 cases as of August 5, and more than 300 recovered cases.