ILOILO City – The two children of the couple in Pavia, Iloilo who tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were negative of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes the illness.
Mayor Laurence Anthony Gorriceta himself announced this good news.
The children’s specimens – taken on April 8 – were analyzed at the Western Visayas Medical Center. The results were released on April 11.
On April 13, specimens were again taken from the couple for a repeat test. The results were yet to be released as this was being written.
Gorriceta acknowledged the anxiety of the couple’s neighbors in a residential subdivision in Barangay Pandac. He assured them that the couple and their children were keeping to themselves at their residence.
The husband, 50, was Western Visayas’ COVID-19 Patient No. 37 while his 52-year-old wife was Patient No. 38.
Gorriceta said the local government of Pavia is temporarily providing the basic needs of the couple and their children who are all prohibited from leaving their house until they have all been cleared.
The couple had close contact with the region’s COVID-19 Patient No. 11 – a 72-year-old-male resident of Mandurriao district here who died on March 21.
People can catch COVID-19 from others who have the virus. The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales.
The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea. These symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually.
On April 13, the local government of Pavia extended its enhanced community quarantine against COVID-19 up to April 30.
The quarantine was supposed to end yesterday, April 14.
“The number of confirmed positive cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continue to rise throughout the country, including the municipality of Pavia with two confirmed positive cases,” according to Gorriceta.
In Executive Order No. 026-B Series of 2020, Gorriceta ordered additional precautionary and preventive measures and disease control mechanisms for his town.
One of these was the adoption of the Philippine Institute for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases’ (PSMID) practice guidelines on COVID-19, specifically the new “surveillance definitions” in reporting cases that for several weeks were referred to as persons under investigation (PUI), persons under investigation (PUM) and positive cases. The new terms are “suspect case”, “probable case” and “confirmed case”.
Gorriceta also announced a common municipal isolation/quarantine facility – the Pavia Pilot Elementary School for suspect and probable cases. He urged returning overseas workers to observe a 14-day quarantine in this facility.
Now, the wearing of facemask in public is also mandatory, Gorriceta added./PN
