BAGUIO CITY –– The number of Baguio patients infected with the coronavirus disease has risen to 10, while Cordillera’s first COVID-19 case may have infected a second patient in Abra province, the Department of Health announced on Saturday (March 28).
Benguet province has also recorded its first two infections, increasing the number of cases in the Cordillera to 14.
Seven of the Baguio patients came from Manila, a reason why the Baguio administration shut down its borders on Saturday to prevent people, including Baguio residents outside the summer capital, from entering the city for the next two weeks.
One of the Baguio patients is a 61-year-old woman, who returned from Italy, but who was immediately sequestered and confined by medical workers.
Another Baguio patient, a 67-year-old man, apparently contracted the virus after interacting with a COVID patient, while the tenth Baguio case, a 52-year-old man, was classified as the city’s first patient infected through the local transmission.
A 55-year-old woman who died on March 19, after a trip to Manila, is considered a presumptive COVID-19 patient, but results of her confirmatory tests have not yet been released at press time.
In Abra, a second COVID case has been reported. The 48-year-old man was described as a close contact of their first patient, a 39-year-old migrant worker, who returned from the United Arab Emirates on the first days of March.
DOH did not say which towns the two Benguet cases come from but describes one of them as a 6-year-old girl who traveled from the Calabarzon (Region IV-A), while the other patient is a 34-year-old woman from abroad.