BAGUIO CITY—The province of Apayao reported two new COVID-19 patients while the mining town of Mankayan in Benguet province listed its first coronavirus infection on Independence Day (Friday, June 12).
In Apayao, Gov. Eleanor Bugtong-Begtang locked down the towns of Pudtol and Santa Marcela to pave the way for the hunt, through contact tracing, of people who have interacted with the two new patients.
In Mankayan, Mayor Frenzel Ayong shut off the village of Lower Balili to the rest of the town after a 28-year old woman who resides at the sub-village of Sayapot contracted the disease, according the Philippine Information Agency.
The new patients raised the number of Cordillera cases to 72 since the start of the pandemic.
To date, only Mountain Province remains as the only Cordillera province with zero case of COVID-19.