4 new COVID-19 patients raise Quezon record to 53
LUCENA CITY –– Quezon province has four new confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) carriers on Thursday, bringing the total number of infected persons in the province to 53.
In its noon report, the Quezon Provincial Information Office (QPIO), citing the latest record from the Integrated Provincial Health Office, disclosed that two new cases were traced to Lucena City and one each from Candelaria and Lucban towns.
No other details were given on the latest COVID-19 patients.
With the latest report, the recorded COVID-19 cases in Quezon rose to 53 from Wednesday’s 49.
The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City has temporarily stopped the processing of specimens from the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon after it scaled-down testing because of 43 infected employees.
Though health officials vowed to resume RITM’s full operation at least by the end of the week, the gap could delay the community testing being done in the provinces.
The recorded COVID-19 cases in Lucena City jumped to 18 from Wednesday’s 16 and Candelaria to five.
The confirmed COVID-19 patient in Lucban was the first case in the town at the foot of Mount Banahaw.
On his Facebook, Lucban Mayor Olivier Dator revealed that the new patient from their town is a “45-year-old health worker at the Quezon Medical Center” in Lucena.
Dator said their patient, who is asymptomatic and confined in a medical facility in Lucena, had since not set her foot in Lucban after the local government started the strict implementation of the enhanced community quarantine order.
“She had no exposure to our people,” Dator assured his townmates.
Still, Dator has ordered the local government to immediately implement a 48-hour total lockdown to strengthen their precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
The QPIO reported that the province has one “probable” COVID-19 patient and 234 suspected carriers of the virus.
With the recovery of the four patients from Lucena (2), Tayabas City (1), and Sariaya (1), and the death of six others, the number of active COVID-19 carriers in the province is down to 43. They are all confined in undisclosed hospitals.
The recovered patient from Tayabas on Wednesday has yet to be included in the IPHO tally.
The other 27 towns in the province remain COVID-19-free.
LZB
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