COTABATO CITY –– A 32-year-old resident of Lanao del Sur has hurdled the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and left the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) alive and fully recovered, a health official said.
Dr. Helen Yambao, CRMC chief, said the patient earlier tested positive for COVID-19 has been discharged over the weekend after spending two weeks inside the CRMC isolation room.
“Our lone positive case was already discharged, resolved na siya, discharged, and alive,” Yambao said as Bangsamoro health officials turned over some Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical supplies to the hospital on Wednesday.
The patient tagged by DOH as Patient 145 (PH145) was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 17. He was one of the 215 Muslim religious leaders, more known here as “Tablighs” who attended an Islamic gathering at the Sri Petaling Mosque in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on February 27 to March 1.
The event attended by about 16,000 devotees from 30 countries was earlier reported to have contributed to the spike of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia.
Earlier, another patient, who had been with PH145 to the same gathering, also tested positive of the virus but did not survive.
The patient, an Islamic missionary, died at Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City on March 17, only hours before the test results that confirmed him positive of the virus arrived.
Yambao said she was relieved that CRMC’s first COVID-19 patient survived the virus, but four more patients under investigation were still confined in isolation rooms of the CRMC.
“We still have four other PUIs, who are having the symptoms, although they all appear stable,” she said.
She refused to answer any more questions about the recovered patient but only said she was so happy he made it alive.