COVID-19 Watch: Albay man, relative of Bicol’s first fatality bring cases in Bicol to 16

Update

GUINOBATAN, Albay—Two new patients in Bicol tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Thursday (April 9), according to the Department of Health in Bicol.

A 60-year-old man in Tagas village in Daraga town in Albay tested positive after showing symptoms since March 20.

Provincial Health Office head Dr. Antonio Ludovice told Inquirer that the patient was swabbed on March 30 by the Provincial Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (PESU) at a hospital in Daraga.

“He was admitted on March 28 and was transferred to Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital on March 30,” Ludovice said.

Daraga town Mayor Victor Perete has ordered the lockdown of the patient’s zone of residence.

DOH Bicol said that the history of travel was being established as the cause of him contracting the disease.

“It is with great sadness that we are announcing to you today that one of the eight individuals, who had direct contact with the COVID-19 patient from Barangay Calauag, tested positive for SAR-NCoV-2,” Naga City Mayor Nelson Legacion said in a livestreamed announcement on Thursday at 8:22 p.m. He said that the patient was in Bicol Medical Center (BMC).

Before this, he said that four more relatives of the COVID-19 victim tested positive.

“All four tested negative. This excludes the three others who tested negative yesterday,” Legacion announced through his social media account.

However, since one of the relatives tested positive, he said that the lockdown in Calauag village would remain in place “until further notice.”

The family’s relatives were also quarantined to a city-controlled facility for monitoring.

“Nasopharyngeal swabbing of the immediate family members will also be done,” he said.

To date, Naga City has recorded three COVID-19 cases with one death and one recovered, while Daraga town has recorded two.

Meanwhile, DOH Bicol recorded one recovered patient, also on Thursday.

PH765, the 50-year-old man from Bacacay town, tested negative after not exhibiting symptoms for a week.