Negros Oriental records 9 new COVID-19 cases, one fatality
DUMAGUETE CITY – The province of Negros Oriental has recorded nine new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) with one death.
Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Liland Estacion, who also chairs the health committee of the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), in a press briefing on Monday afternoon, said this was based on test results that arrived here over the weekend.
The nine new confirmed cases were as follows: an 82-year-old-female from Barangay Cadawinonan here, a male from Barangay Tinago here, one each from Bacong, Zamboanguita, Amlan, and Dauin; two from Sta. Catalina, and an authorized person outside of residence (APOR) from Guihulngan City.
An octogenarian woman from Barangay Cadawinonan was the fourth and latest Covid-19 casualty in the province, Estacion said.
She had no known travel history and died at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital shortly after being attended to at the emergency room last July 26. The casualty had co-morbidities, she added.
The patient was diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia and was throat-swabbed on the day she died, and the result came only July 31, Estacion said.
Dr. Ma. Sarah Talla, the City Health Officer here, said in the briefing that contact tracing was ongoing with the fatality.
Estacion said they were eyeing possible community transmission related to the death of the octogenarian.
If the source of the infection is untraceable, then it will be considered a community transmission, she added.
“We do not want to preempt” the announcement of a community transmission until the contact tracing is over and results of throat-swab test samples of those who were in contact with the deceased are released,” Talla said.
She said the close contacts of the octogenarian have been subjected to rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) and a number of them have been found reactive and will have to be swab-tested.
There is no lockdown so far in the barangay or the area where the deceased elderly originated, she added.
As of Monday, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Negros Oriental since March has reached 102, with 32 active cases, four deaths, and 66 recoveries.