BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental has recorded its first case of local coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission.
This new case – also the province’s Patient No. 105 – was a 47-year-old ambulance driver of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO), according to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson.
He was part of the latest cases that the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 confirmed on July 3.
“Yes, we have Patient No. 105, a frontliner of PDRRMO who would drive for locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs),” Lacson said, adding contact tracing was immediately launched.
“This is an unfortunate incident where a frontliner, in the course of doing his job, got infected,” he said.
Patient No. 105 was in charge of transporting COVID-19 positive OFWs from their hotels to provincial quarantine facilities.
He and four more LSIs who arrived in Negros Occidental tested positive for Covid-19, the Department of Health reported on Friday.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said 15 members of the Emergency Response Unit of the Negros Occidental have been quarantined.
Lacson clarified that the driver was wearing his PPE and is currently asymptomatic.
The patient has been quarantined at the EB Magalona Healing Center, while the 14 other members of the Emergency Response Team who came in close contact with him will be quarantined at the Mambukal Resort in Murcia.
Diaz said the driver’s family will also undergo COVID-19 testing.
Mayor Gerry Rojas of Murcia town ordered the lockdown of 120 houses in Purok New Site, Barangay Minoyan where the driver currently resides.
Lacson also said that there is no cause for Negrenses to panic.
“We need the residents in these areas to cooperate and stay home. It will not help if we panic and there is no reason to do so,” he said./PN
