Davao Sur town’s 1st COVID-19 cases—girl battling cancer and her mom

HAGONOY, DAVAO DEL SUR—A 10-year-old girl battling cancer and her 39-year-old mother became this town’s first COVID-19 patients.

Mayor Franco Calida said on Monday (June 1) that the mother, who became Davao del Sur’s 14th COVID-19 patient, had been frequently accompanying her daughter at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao City to prepare for her child’s blood transfusion.

The mayor said the child, was already among 13 COVID-19 patients in the province. She was tested last May 26 when she started showing symptoms. Three days later, the results showed she was positive for SARS Cov2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The mother, however, continued to show no symptoms until May 31, the rural health office said.

Mother and daughter have been admitted in an isolation unit of SPMC.

Calida said the girl’s father and three siblings tested negative but were still put on quarantine.

In the town of Bansalan, a total of 160 households were given stay-at-home orders when Mayor Quirina Sarte put the village of New Clarin on lockdown after a COVID-19 case was found in the area, becoming the town’s first.

Sarte said 10 persons had been identified to be in close contact with the patient, a 30-year old construction worker who worked in Davao City.

The mayor also ordered the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC) to disinfect the entire village and promised to send relief goods to all households covered by the lockdown.

“If the family will test positive, it means local transmission is already here and it will be the time they will be brought to our isolation rooms,” she said.

To prevent panic, health officials disclosed the brief case history of the patient, with the patient’s consent, health officials said.

Lawyer Kirby Villaraiz, municipal legal officer and spokesperson of the Bansalan Inter-agency Task Force on COVID-19, said the patient arrived at the sub-village of Cagas, New Clarin last May 23 and put on quarantine after being stranded in Davao City because of the lockdown.

He temporarily worked from home.

The patient left the village only thrice—April 15 and 30 when he bought essential goods for his family at the Bansalan public market and on May 10 when he went to Matanao town, where his family stayed, and remained there for three days. He returned to the village of New Clarin to work from home.

But on May 23, his company asked him to return to Davao City, which he reached by motorcycle on May 26.

Except for a brief stopover for lunch in Digos City, he went straight to his boarding house at Matina Grabahan.

Villaraiz said the man was tested on May 27 as part of his company’s protocol and “tested positive for antibodies” for coronavirus.

Another more extensive test was done and results, which came out on May 30, showed him positive for coronavirus.

Villaraiz said the man, who’s still not showing symptoms, had already been isolated in a Davao City facility.

Mayor Sarte said the town would remain under general community quarantine (GCQ) and not yet transition to modified GCQ although President Rodrigo Duterte had already declared Davao del Sur to be on modified GCQ.

The mayor said a ban on alcoholic drinks and checkpoints would stay.

Edited by TSB