6 more persons test positive for COVID-19 in BARMM

COTABATO CITY (PNA) – Six more persons have tested positive for the coronavirus disease  (COVID-19) in the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the region’s Ministry of Health (MOH) said Monday.

Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan, MOH-BARMM minister, said three of the six new cases were from Lanao del Sur, and the remaining three from Basilan, raising the total number of confirmed COVID-19 positive in the region to 593.

Four hundred forty-nine patients have recovered while 130 remained active, translating to a 76 percent recovery rate.

As of Sunday, the region has 14 cumulative COVID-19 deaths: nine coming from Marawi City and Lanao del Sur, three in Sulu, and one each in Tawi-Tawi and Basilan.

The majority of confirmed cases were from Lanao del Sur with 250 or about 42 percent, followed by Basilan with 108, Maguindanao (94), Sulu (17), Tawi-Tawi (4) and locally stranded individuals from Manila to Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi (120).

Mohd Asnin Pendatun, spokesperson of the BARMM Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on COVID-19, said health frontliners are currently focusing on the case of 34 police officers who were infected with the virus from a tailor who was to make their uniforms.

“We are closely watching this development, we hope all of them will defeat the disease,” Pendatun said in a separate interview Monday.

In the Soccsksargen region, health workers were also focused on the cases of five of their own at the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC), the COVID-19 referral hospital in Region 12 and BARMM.

Five of eight new cases in the Soccsksargen region reported on Friday were from the CRMC.

Three family members of one of the five health workers, a male nurse, were also infected.

“They have exposures to COVID-19 patients,” Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi said of the five nurses. She added that the three family members of the male nurse - his wife and two children - are now isolated in the Barangay Ligtas COVID-19 Center. “All of them are in stable condition,” she said.

Region 12 now has a total of 396 patients with 293 recoveries or a recovery rate of 74 percent. The Department of Health – Soccsksargen said 98 are active patients while four have died due to Covid-19.

The province of South Cotabato remained on top with the most number of cumulative patients at 98 and Cotabato City with the least number of confirmed patients at 44. Sarangani has 73, Sultan Kudarat (71), North Cotabato and General Santos City (55).