MANILA, Philippines — The Manila City government has started tracing people who might have had close or direct contact with two suspected COVID-19 patients who escaped from their quarantine facility.
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said on Tuesday that the city’s Health Department started contact tracing ever since they got hold of the two patients, who also happened to be suspects facing drug-related and child abuse charges.
“We are now tracing the people who may have talked with the suspects. They are suspects facing cases. But they also tested positive for COVID-19, and they’re waiting for another result of confirmatory tests. But they used this as an opportunity to escape,” Moreno said in Filipino in a briefing.
“The problem is we cannot afford to let those positive for COVID-19 to roam around. So the city government, through the Manila Health Department, made it a point to immediately start tracing who the two patients talked with and interacted with,” he added.
The two suspects fled the Delpan Quarantine Facility in Tondo early Tuesday morning.
Officers from the Santa Ana Police Station of the Manila Police District (MPD) were able to track down the two patients and brought them back to the quarantine facility at around 6:00 p.m.
According to the MPD, the responding officers would also be placed under quarantine to ensure that they were not infected with the coronavirus.
Moreno warned that suspected or probable COVID-19 patients who would violate quarantine protocols could be held responsible under various laws, like the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, which requires patients to cooperate with authorities.
“If you test positive for COVID-19 or the virus, and you either neglect quarantine responsibilities or hide your condition and place the public in danger, then you are violating certain laws,” he said.
As of this writing, Manila has recorded 1,472 coronavirus-infected patients, 945 of whom are active while 424 have recovered. At least 103 have died while 1,362 and 144 patients are considered suspect and probable cases, respectively.
Nationwide, there are 18,997 cases — with 966 deaths and 4,063 recoveries.
/atm