CAPAS, TARLAC –– A nurse, who has been caring for a 28-year-old patient infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), has become Tarlac province’s 21st case.
Classified as TP 182, the 30-year-old woman assisted TP 52, who had a history of travel to Indonesia, Quezon province, and Manila, at the Ospital ning Capas on March 22.
The nurse has been isolated after manifesting flu-like symptoms like a sore throat, 13 days after her exposure to TP 52. She is set to undergo a second test after completing her oral medications.
The man she took care of said infecting his nurse has traumatized him. “It scares me, ganito pala kapag ikaw yung nakahawa (So this is what it’s like when you are the source of contamination). It makes me more worried. My mom tested negative (for the virus), eh mas marami akong contact kay mama compared sa kanya (and I had more interaction with her compared to my nurse),” he said in a telephone interview.
“Naka-PPE na sya, yet nahawaan pa rin (she was already wearing a personal protective equipment suit, and yet she got infected), ” the patient added.
According to TP 52, the nurse tried to reassure him by saying he would be okay and that he may be suffering a bout of bronchitis.
The nurse had also accompanied TP 52 to the Congressman Enrique Henry M. Cojuangco Memorial District Hospital in Moncada town.
“Naikwento pa nya yung anak nya na ilang araw na nyang hindi nakikita, it breaks my heart. May anak sya, hindi ko mapapatawad ang sarili ko kapag nahawaan rin sila
(She told me it had been some time since she saw her child. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if her child also catches this virus),” he added.
He revealed how he has been attacked and reviled online by people he didn’t even know, who kept demanding that he post his movements around Capas.
TP 52 said he asked his friends to send him some photos of Mt. Arayat and even the moon at night, to ease his loneliness at the hospital where he has been confined for 23 days.
TP 52 is now waiting for the results of his second test.