PUERTO PRINCESA CITY –– Five new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported Thursday by the City Incident Management Team, who considered the cases to be from “community transmission.”
Dr. Dean Palanca, city incident commander and assistant city health officer (CHO), in an advisory aired live on Facebook Thursday, said the five new COVID-19 patients in Barangay Santa Monica were “close contacts” that traced back to the Ospital Ng Palawan (ONP) personnel.
The five new patients were a 6-year-old girl, a 57-year-old man, a 25-year-old woman, a 26-year-old man, and a 28-year-old man.
“Some of them were already isolated in our facility, while the remaining members of the direct contacts were yet to be extricated to be brought to the facility,” Palanca added.
Dr. Ruffia Marie Atencio, CHO medical officer, reiterated that the recent development confirmed “community transmission.” Atencio added, however, that the origin is yet to be determined.
“Now that we have five cases from outside the hospital and were already at the barangay, it may be considered community transmission,” Atencio said.
Palawan province recorded a total of 22 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with one recovery, one casualty, and 20 active cases. Twelve of them are in Puerto Princesa City, five in Sofronio Española, and three in Coron, as of Thursday morning.