Nurse is latest COVID-19 patient in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY –– A 38-year-old male nurse has contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), raising the number of infections to three after the city transitioned to a modified general community quarantine, the City Health Services Office announced on Tuesday.

Details about the health worker have not been released by the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, which launched contact tracing procedures at the hospital and the patient’s residence, said Dr. Rowena Galpo, city health officer, during a Management Committee meeting at City Hall.

The first two patients were reported on June 1. One of them is a 28-year-old returning worker, who manages a shop in a shopping mall. She was stranded in her hometown of Binmaley in Pangasinan on March 16.

She proceeded to San Fernando City in La Union, where fellow workers converged on May 26, Galpo said.

She traveled to Baguio three days after and submitted to examination at a triage, where her condition was detected.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the woman was given a health certificate by her places of origin, which may require all workers and returning residents to undergo mandatory Xray procedures, which was how the woman’s infection was eventually discovered.

The other patient is a 25-year-old man, who was apprehended on May 28 after a drunken brawl. Now detained for beating up his father, the man led the local epidemiology team to 130 people with whom he may have interacted.

The nurse is the city’s 35th COVID-19 case since the pandemic began.

LZB