DAVAO CITY - The Bangsamoro government on Friday said 32 more employees from the Office of the Chief Minister (OCM) tested positive for coronavirus disease.
In a statement, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) said "there are now 35 confirmed cases within the Bangsamoro Government Center," most of whom were essential employees from the OCM.
It added that 29 of these were residents of Cotabato City, while six were from Maguindanao province.
"The newly confirmed cases are all in stable condition and undergoing strict isolation. Moreover, these patients were brought to our isolation centers immediately after receiving the result of their confirmatory test," it said.
It can be recalled that three employees from the OCM tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the temporary closure of the OCM building for disinfection starting September 3.
The three employees were all from Cotabato City and worked at the Finance, Budget and Management Services of the OCM under the incumbent BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim.
"The first case has no known exposure to any confirmed case and no known travel history to areas with local or sustained community transmission," the Bangsamoro Government said in a statement last September 2.
From September 2 to September 5, those who had direct contact and recent transactions with the three confirmed cases underwent swab testing for RT-PCR.
"Out of the 181 results received from the 229 swab samples taken, 32 tested positive, as of this writing. This includes one person who yielded a presumptive result," the Bangsamoro government said in its statement.
It added that the new recorded cases should not cause panic among the public.
"Rest assured that the Bangsamoro Government is implementing aggressive containment strategy to control and avoid any further spread of the virus, which includes close coordination with pertinent offices within and outside of the BARMM," it said.
It also said that the families of the affected personnel were being attended to "through the OCM’s Project Tabang and the BARMM READi."
"In addition, the Ministry of Health is conducting extensive contact tracing related to the new confirmed cases," it said.