Coast Guard exec is Ifugao’s 2nd COVID-19 patient

BAGUIO CITY –– An officer of the Coast Guard was isolated by the Lamut government on May 1 (not May 2), according to Lamut Municipal Health Officer Dr. Rhodara Montessa.

The Coast Guard officer, who is from Barangay Panopdopan, is Ifugao province’s second patient to be afflicted with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Montessa said he had been coughing, and his test results were released on Tuesday (May 12).

He was traveling with an Army truck bound for Isabela province when his condition was detected at a checkpoint in the Ifugao town of Lamut.

He was immediately brought to the town’s quarantine facility, said Ifugao Public Employment Service Office coordinator Aristotle De Castro during the Department of Health briefing on Tuesday.

De Castro said they have asked the military to provide information about the Coast Guard officer’s companions, who would need to be tested.

Ifugao’s first patient is a 65-year-old man whose infection was confirmed on April 25.

The latest Ifugao case raised the number of COVID-19 cases in the Cordillera to 45 as of May 12.

The DOH has yet to list a 41-year-old police officer, who has been recorded as Baguio’s latest patient after no transmission case was reported since April 27, according to Mayor Benjamin Magalong during a management committee meeting held on Tuesday at City Hall.

Police Major Rafael Roxas, deputy chief of the fingerprint division at the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory in Camp Crame, tested positive for the disease on Monday (May 11) and has been isolated.

He consented to reveal his identity to help speed up the contact tracing process, according to the city public information office.

Magalong stressed that Roxas was infected in Manila.

The police officer is Baguio’s 31st recorded infection since the Luzon lockdown was enforced in March. Its extension would lapse on May 15.

LZB