4 new COVID-19 patients confirmed in Region 12

COTABATO CITY –– Four new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases have been reported by the Department of Health (DOH-12), raising to seven the total confirmed cases in the Soccsksargen region.

Two new patients were from Cotabato City, which now has four COVID-19 cases, including the first one who recovered, according to DOH-12 Health Education and Promotion Officer Arjohn Gangoso.

The four new COVID-19 cases include Patient 2235, a 56-year-old man from Cotabato City, who traveled to Pampanga and Davao City before coming home here on March 9 before he complained of flu-like symptoms and got admitted at the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center.

Patient 2236, a 46-year-old man from here who recently traveled to Davao City, where a spike in the number of COVID-19 positive cases has been noted.

Gangoso said other confirmed COVID-19 positive cases in the region included Patient 2173, a 52-year-old man from T’boli town, South Cotabato, who went to Manila for his lung problem.

After President Duterte placed the entire Luzon under enhanced community quarantine, the man took the boat from Manila to Cagayan de Oro City and traveled back to his hometown in South Cotabato by land. He got admitted for flu-like symptoms in the hospital and was later tested positive for the virus.

Gangoso said he was now in a stable condition and had been isolated in a COVID-19 isolation center in the province.

Patient 2240 is a 21-year-old woman from Sultan Kudarat, who traveled to Manila and arrived in the province on March 15. She has been in stable health condition and is on home quarantine.

She is the second COVID-19 positive person in Sultan Kudarat after an 87-year-old man suspected of COVID-19 died of acute respiratory infection on March 14 in a hospital in Tacurong City.

The man’s test results came out only on March 25, which confirmed him positive of COVID-19. DOH tagged him as Patient 600. But by then, his friends and relatives had already held a seven-day vigil for him, raising concern among health authorities for possible spread of the virus as existing health protocols require patients who died of infectious disease to be buried within 12 hours.

Among the earlier confirmed cases in this city, Patient 145, a 32-year-old man who joined the Islamic event in Malaysia and the first to be tested positive of COVID-19 here already recovered and was discharged from the hospital last week.

Patient 599, a 68-year-old woman, who made a two-day trip to Manila before coming home here, got admitted to the hospital on March 12 and was already discharged from the hospital, when her test results confirming her positive of COVID-19 reached her. She is now in stable condition and under close monitoring by DOH.

LZB