Seafarer returning to Misamis Occidental from Manila tests positive for COVID-19

ILIGAN CITY –– One of the five seafarers from Misamis Occidental, who went home last week courtesy of the government’s Balik-Probinsya program, has tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Dr. Adriano Suba-an, DOH Region 10 director, said the sailor first tested positive for coronavirus antibodies when subjected to rapid test upon arrival in Ozamiz City.

He was swabbed for confirmatory reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.

Misamis Occidental Governor Philip Tan said the sailor is from Jimenez town, where another overseas worker earlier tested positive for COVID-19.

He is the fourth COVID-19 case in Misamis Occidental.

Tan said the sailor showed no symptoms of the infection.

The sailor was part of the first batch of 305 overseas workers repatriated from Manila into their respective home provinces.

When they arrived in the country, they got stranded in Manila because of the lockdown.

They were boarded on April 27 in 2GO Shipping’s M/V St. Michael the Archangel.

More than 200 passengers disembarked in Cebu, 14 of whom later tested positive for COVID-19; 23 in Dumaguete, five in Ozamiz, and eight in Iligan.

Two of the eight who disembarked in Iligan were found to have coronavirus antibodies through the rapid test.

One from Wao town in Lanao del Sur eventually tested negative for COVID-19 through the RT-PCR test, said Dr. Alinader Minanalang, head of the Lanao del Sur Integrated Provincial Health Office.

Another from Kapatagan town in Lanao del Norte also tested negative, said Lyndon Calica, provincial community affairs officer.

LZB