BAGUIO CITY — Four patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have publicly revealed their identities to speed up contact tracing and convince Baguio residents to heed quarantine rules.
Joel Junsay, 52, a health worker of the City Health Services Office, was the first to come out publicly on Saturday (Mar. 28) , by executing an affidavit which details his movement prior to his confinement in a local hospital for treatment.
He also revealed his village, which the city government has circulated to doctors, local media and village officials.
Jusay was the first patient to be infected through local transmission.
On Mar. 29, Las Piñas City couple Enrique and Jaysay Bactad publicly disclosed that they, too, were infected.
Enrique, who has a debilitating ailment, motored up to Baguio to see his Baguio-based doctor for a regular checkup last March 15 when he and his wife suffered bouts of fever.
Both 67-years-old, they revealed where they stayed and which hospitals they visited before they were quarantined.
On Monday (Mar. 30), Filipino-American Rafael Serrano, who is visiting here from New York City in the United States, also revealed that he has contracted the virus.
Serrano’s affidavit says he arrived here from Thailand on Mar. 12 and developed flu-like symptoms on Mar. 16. He circulated the city and attended a family gathering before he was admitted to a hospital. Results of tests confirming his infection were released last March 28.
As a result of the revelations, the city’s epidemiology team confirmed it had managed to track down people who had contact with the four COVID-19 carriers.
As of Mar. 28, the number of COVID-19 patients in Baguio has risen to 10, seven of them believed to have contracted the disease in Manila. One of the first patients was a woman who returned from Italy, one of the global COVID-19 hot spots now.
Baguio has shut down its borders for the next two weeks to ride out the remaining days of the Luzon-wide quarantine.