Zambo Sur gov confirms 2 COVID-19 PUI but won’t order lockdown yet

PAGADIAN CITY—Zamboanga del Sur Gov. Victor Yu confirmed on Monday (March 30) that the provincial government had put on health watch two persons under investigation (PUI), or those with symptoms, for COVID-19.

Yu said the PUI included a 52-year-old man from Labangan town, Zamboanga del Sur who traveled to Taguig and Zamboanga City on March 14 and a 62-year-old woman who went to Manila on March 5 and went back here two days later.

The man from Labangan town has been confined at the Zamboanga del Sur Medical Center since March 17, said hospital chief Dr. Anatalio Cagampang.

He had the COVID-19 symptoms cough, sore throat, fever and colds after his arrival and had been placed in the isolation area of the hospital.

The other patient who traveled to Manila started having cough, sore throat and colds five days after her arrival. She was brought to the hospital on March 19.

Cagampang said the two patients had been both physically and clinically stable. He said there had been a number of COVID-19-positive patients who recovered.

Yu said a team had immediately conducted contact tracing for persons who may have been exposed to the two carriers.

But despite the two positive cases, the Zamboanga del Sur Task Force COVID-19 could not just order a lockdown in the province. Yu, however, said security patrol along the borders would have to be intensified.

In Misamis Occidental, the provincial government has started contract-tracing passengers of the Philippine Airlines flight in the morning of March 14 who may have had direct physical contact with a patient who had been tested positive for COVID-19 in Ozamiz City.

Misamis Occidental Gov. Phillip Tan called on the passengers to have themselves checked and go on 14-day home quarantine.

Ozamiz City Mayor Sancho Oaminal confirmed on Sunday (March 29) that a patient at the Mayor Hilarion A. Ramiro, Sr. (MHARS) Medical Center had been tested positive for the virus.

The 45-year old man, who was admitted to the hospital on March 24, had been a seaman who traveled to Thailand and stayed for several days in Manila before going home to Mindanao.

He was admitted to the hospital for flu-like symptoms 10 days after his arrival in Ozamiz City, where 17 more PUI were still on home quarantine for mild symptoms, Oaminal said.

Edited by TSB