18-year-old patient is Zamboanga City’s 4th COVID-19 death

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur –– The city’s task force COVID-19 announced late Tuesday night the death of an 18-year-old male from barangay Baliwasan here, the fourth coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case to have died in this city.

Dr. Justin Elfred Paber, public affairs officer of the Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC), said the patient, who was the 145th case in this city, was admitted at the hospital on May 25 and died of respiratory failure secondary to cardiogenic shock due to congestive heart failure on the same day.

The patient also had chronic hepatitis B infection and a history of substance abuse.

Sheila Belen Covarrubias, spokesperson of the task force, said the patient’s test results came out on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old was the fourth COVID-19 patient to have died here.

The first COVID-19 death was that of a 47-year-old person deprived of liberty (PDL) from the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center here, who died at the hospital on April 20.

The second was a 94-year-old matriarch of a prominent business clan here.

The third was a 61-year-old female PDL from the same jail facility, who died in the hospital on April 30.

Covarrubias said health authorities had started tracing those who may have come in contact with the patient while the area, where the patient lived, had been placed on lockdown as part of the health protocol.

At least four areas in the city had also been placed on lockdown since Sunday following additional COVID-19 cases discovered in the city.

These new cases include a barangay nutrition scholar and two of the PDLs, who were part of the first 60 PDLs from the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center, who have received a court order for their release, and were moved out of jail on May 10 to a downtown hotel for the 14-day quarantine.

Swab samples were first collected from two patients for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on May 5 but these samples were not sent to the referral laboratory due to the unavailability of testing reagents.

On May 11, they were re-tested and their specimens sent to the ZCMC test laboratory. Of the 60 persons tested, 30 came out negative, according to the test results released on May 13.

But when the test laboratory at the Department of Agriculture compound here opened on May 18, two of the samples were tested again and came out positive for COVID-19.

The two patients remained at the Ecozone for isolation, but health authorities remained hopeful for their recovery.

LZB