COVID-19 suspects in Quezon climb to 1,045 from 323

LUCENA CITY –– Quezon province on Friday recorded 1,045 suspected coronavirus disease (COVID-19) carriers.

In its 8 a.m. bulletin, the Quezon Public Information Office (QPIO), citing a report from the Integrated Provincial Health Office (QPIO), revealed that the number of COVID-19 suspects jumped to 1,045 from its Thursday list of only 323.

The confirmed COVID-19 patients in the province remained at 66.

To dispel the notion that the big part of the suspects came from Lucena, Arnel Avila, city public information officer, citing the latest data from the local Inter-Agency Task Force, disclosed that only 62 new suspects were from the city.

On Tuesday, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Lucena City government officials earned the ire of residents when at least 9,000 people, although wearing face masks, interacted with others at a very close distance while waiting to get their cash aid from the government at the city proper.

It caused concern that the assembly, a violation of government guidelines against crowd gathering, would cause an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city.

Lucena has 27 patients, three of whom have recovered.

The QPIO also reported that one COVID-19 patient has recovered, bringing the total number of recovered, cleared, and discharged patients to nine.

With the recovery of nine patients and the death of seven others, the number of active COVID-19 patients in the province is down to 50.

The QPIO report also showed that the province has one “probable” COVID-19 patient.

LZB