Sara Duterte sees sign of local COVID-19 transmission in Davao City

DAVAO CITY—Mayor Sara Duterte said the case of a COVID-19 patient here who had no travel history to infected places and did not go to the crowd-drawing cockfight derby at the New Matina Gallera indicated that local transmission could already be taking place in the city.

“There has been a patient who acquired the disease without travel history from virus-contaminated areas and did not attend the cock-fight event in Matina,” Duterte said.

She said the case was a sign of community transmission but did not mention the place where the patient was from.

She also did not reveal any further details about the patient.

The mayor, however, admitted that the sudden spike in the number of persons under investigation (PUI) in the city were mostly people who attended the recent cockfighting event in Matina.

She said the health department in the city had been continuously tracing those who went to the event but most of the PUI would be known soon as their 14–day quarantine had ended.

Duterte, however, urged the people to not focus on the number of COVID-19 patients in the city but instead on “preventive measures how not to acquire the disease.”

“Take the precautionary measures,” she said. “Stay at home, wash your hands regularly and observe social distancing. People are also mandated to wear the proper masks when going out of the house,” she added.

Edited by TSB