2 subvillages with COVID-19 cases  in Negros Oriental on quarantine

DUMAGUETE CITY –– Quarantine measures have been imposed on two sub-villages in Negros Oriental, where there are patients with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

A 39-year-old female tested positive for COVID-19 in Sitio Malangsuba, Barangay Bagacay, in Dumaguete City, prompting authorities to impose restrictions on at least 10 households with about 20 individuals, who were her immediate neighbors.

Dumaguete City Councilor Edgar Lentorio Jr. said these individuals had been isolated based on the contact tracing done by the City Health Office.

Barangay officials continuously patrol the sub-village, while barricades such as barbed wires have also been installed to make sure no one comes in and out of the quarantined area, Lentorio said.

Affected residents, however, received food aid from the city government.

The patient has been placed at the barangay isolation center, including her husband and child.

Dr. Liland Estacion of the Provincial Health Office said in a press conference that health authorities had yet to determine how she got the virus since she was neither an overseas Filipino worker nor a locally stranded individual, who was repatriated.

A sub-village in Barangay Bugnay in northern Mabinay town has also been placed on quarantine after a COVID-19-positive patient went around, made contact with neighbors, and even had a drinking session with some of them.

The patient was a 25-year-old construction worker, who had been stranded in Bacolod City, and had allegedly evaded the border checkpoint by taking a shortcut directly to his hometown, municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer Dindo Amorganda said.

The worker arrived home in late May, but only tested positive on June 2. He is now on isolation at the town’s government quarantine facility.