MANILA – A Negros Oriental town councilor, the first confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Visayas, died yesterday.
Negros Oriental governor Noel Degamo said the 62-year-old councilor, identified by the Department of Health (DOH) as Patient 39, succumbed to the disease at 11:09 a.m.
The patient was a councilor from Tayasan who went to Manila on Feb. 26 to attend the Philippine Councilors League convention.
He visited Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan City flying back to Tayasan on March 1.
Greenhills was where Patient 5 – who eventually died a few days before Patient 39 – used to frequent to pray at a prayer hall, according to the Department of Health.
Patient 39 was initially confined at the Ace Doctors Dumaguete, Inc. hospital.
He was considered immune-compromised as he was a kidney transplantee. He attended a flag-raising ceremony at Tayasan on March 2 and the graduation ceremony of Tayasan elementary students before displaying COVID-19 symptoms.
“Mayroon nang community quarantine sa bayan ng Tayasan. All councilors of Tayasan and some [from] Negros Oriental na nakasama niya sa Councilors League [ay] under quarantine din,” he added.
Mark Angelo Llosa, chief of Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital where the councilor was confined, said in a separate interview that the councilor likely had multiple organ failure and was set to be cremated yesterday.
Three of 15 people in the province suspected of carrying the virus tested negative, while 264 are being monitored.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 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. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person.
Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth, said WHO.
People can also catch COVID-19 if they breathe in droplets from a person with COVID-19 who coughs out or exhales droplets. This is why it is important to stay more than one meter (three feet) away from a person who is sick, it added.
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. Some people become infected but don’t develop any symptoms and don’t feel unwell.
WHO said most people (about 80 percent) recover from the disease without needing special treatment. Around one out of every 6 people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness./PN
