Batangas City confirms 1st case of COVID-19

SAN PEDRO CITY –– A Batangas City resident, with a record of recent travel from London, England tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the first record of the infection in Batangas province.

The gender of the individual was not immediately known but the person is in isolation at the Batangas Medical Center, according to provincial administrator Levi Dimaunahan in a phone interview Friday.

The case was also disclosed in an advisory issued by Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas on Friday after it was confirmed Thursday evening.

The case raised concerns primarily since Batangas City may remain the only operating international seaport, once the national government implements a community quarantine by Sunday and therefore ban air, land, and sea travel in and out Metro Manila.

But Mandanas and local officials downplayed any possible effect on the transport of goods from the South to the National Capital Region, particularly the supply of fuel which makes up 60 percent of national demand, the governor said.

Classes in Batangas, which was recently hit by a volcanic eruption, are suspended anew starting Friday until the end of March./lzb