TACLOBAN CITY—An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who had returned to his hometown in Hilongos, Leyte tested positive for SARS Cov2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The Department of Health (DOH) in Eastern Visayas on Friday (May 29) said the latest COVID-19 case in the region involved a 31-year-old man who arrived in Tacloban City en route to Hilongos town last May 25.
The patient, who was among at least 40 OFWs who returned to Leyte from Metro Manila that day, showed no symptoms and was confined in an isolation facility put up by the municipal government of Hilongos.
At least 500 OFWs had already returned to their hometowns in Eastern Visayas since May 25.
The regional DOH office said the number of COVID-19 cases in what is considered as Eastern Visayas’ coronavirus epicenter, Tarangnan town, Samar province, continued to increase with four more added to its record.
The new cases included those of an eight-year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl, a 26-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman.
The four new cases bring the COVID-19 tally in Tarangnan to 28, or more than a majority of Eastern Visayas’ 36 cases.
The DOH said there is now community transmission of COVID-19 in Tarangnan town.