2 Balik Probinsya returnees bring COVID-19 cases to 2 Leyte towns

TACLOBAN CITY –– Two municipalities in Leyte have logged their first cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) involving returnees of the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-Asa Program.

The Department of Health in Eastern Visayas (DOH-8) said the new cases involved a 21-year-old man, who returned to Jaro town last March 28, and a 32-year-old man from Tolosa town, who arrived on May 25.

The entire Eastern Visayas has 39 COVID-19 cases as of May 30. John Paul Roca, information officer of the DOH-8, said the patients from Jaro and Tolosa were both asymptomatic and were confined at isolation facilities in the region.

Despite the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Leyte, Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla said people should remain calm since there is no way that the virus would spread to the communities as returning Leyteños were immediately sent to their respective quarantine facilities.

Leyte is among the provinces in the country that first availed of the Balik Probinsya program, which aims to promote robust regional and rural development and entice those working in Metro Manila to return to their home provinces and find jobs there.

LZB