Cordillera COVID-19 cases soar to 18 but recoveries are high

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines  — The number of patients afflicted with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Cordillera has soared to 18 this week, but doctors also highlighted the recovery of many of these patients including a 6-year-old girl in Benguet’s capital town of La Trinidad.

Benguet has two other cases: a 34-year-old woman who recently flew abroad and a 40-year-old man who traveled recently to Central Luzon.

Baguio City has 13 COVID cases on record, but as of April 3, four of the patients have recovered — a married couple in their 50s who are now in Metro Manila, a 61-year-old woman, and a 70-year-old woman.

Five of the city’s infected have gone public to help the city’s epidemiology team track down people with whom they have interacted with, including a physician and an employee of the city health services office.

The first COVID-19 patient recorded in the region has already been discharged from a La Union hospital where he was confined after laboratory tests confirmed his infection. However before he was treated, the patient – a 37-year-old seaman from Abra – infected two close relatives. They are now the other two confirmed cases in the province.

To date, the provinces of Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province have not recorded any transmissions, although the whole region currently has 330 persons under investigation (PUI) for the virus. Except for 39 individuals, most of them are now on home quarantine. The Department of Health says 515 PUI have been discharged since the virus was first contracted in the country.

Meanwhile, as many as 300,000 upland households may benefit from the social amelioration program which has released an initial P1.3 billion for the mountainous region, to help communities ride out the quarantine enforced to contain the spread of COVID-19, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Each family could receive P5,500 in assistance.

As many as 64,000 beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer will also get additional grants added to their regular allocations so they also get the sum total of P5,500 to help them cope with the lockdown.

/MUF