The Bulacan Provincial Health Office (PHO) is now scrambling to trace more than 100 people who visited the wake of a 34-year-old woman who was found positive for COVID-19 three days after her death.
The PHO said Maria Katrina Santos, 34, was rushed to Polymedic Hospital in Guiguinto on July 11 due to numbness of the body. She was later transferred to Bulacan Medical Center in the City of Malolos wherein doctors found that parts of her brain were bleeding.
Santos died a day after she underwent a swab test. Her remains were later released by the hospital.
The swab test result was released three days after Santos' death. Her family said Santos was not exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 when she was rushed to the hospital.
Based on the rules of the Department of Health (DOH), the cadaver of a person who died due to COVID-19 should be cremated within 12 hours.
Seven members of the Santos family and 18 of their relatives and neighbors are now under home quarantine. None of them had so far shown symptoms of COVID-19.
The Bulacan PHO has been contact-tracing those who attended Santos' wake.