DOH records 3 new COVID-19 cases in Bicol

GUINOBATAN, Albay – The Department of Health recorded three new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Bicol on Tuesday.

The new cases included the region’s second healthcare worker who contracted the virus, a man with no history of travel nor exposure, and a teenager.

The 17-year-old girl from Naga City in Camarines Sur first experienced symptoms on April 18.

According to DOH, the girl was being treated at the Bicol Medical Center in the said city.

She is the youngest COVID-19 patient in the region as of this writing.

In Legazpi City, the second healthcare worker to have contracted COVID-19 in the region was a 21-year-old female nurse.

“She consulted at Albay Provincial Health Office on April 19 for possible exposure,” according to the health department.

The patient was quarantined at an undisclosed facility and was asymptomatic, according to DOH.

On Sunday, a nurse who resides in Daraga town, was confirmed to be the first healthcare worker to have contracted COVID-19 in the region after her exposure to a patient in neighboring Legazpi City.

Meanwhile, in Guinobatan town, a 78-year-old man who had no history of travel nor exposure to a COVID-19 patient was the region’s twenty-eighth case.

This makes him possibly the first case of community transmission of COVID-19 in the region.

Community transmission means transmission is occuring not as a result of travel nor direct contact with a known carrier, meaning, the original source of the virus cannot be traced.

According to DOH, the patient’s onset of illness was on April 11.

The patient, the oldest COVID-19 case in the region, is recovering at Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital (BRTTH) in Legazpi City.