3 Cotabato City COVID-19 patients recover, 3 new cases added in Cotabato province

COTABATO CITY –– Health officials in the Soccsksargen region confirmed the recovery of three coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients in the city even as they announced three new cases in Cotabato province on Thursday.

Arjohn Gangoso, speaking for the Department of Health (DOH) in the region, said the three recovered patients had been sent home to their families.

Those who recovered included a 40-year old woman, who traveled to Manila and returned home in early June, Gangoso said.

The two others were police officers, aged 34 and 41 respectively, who were earlier assigned at the city’s quarantine checkpoints before they contracted the SARS-CoV2 virus and became the region’s 33rd and 34th COVID-19 patients, according to Dr. Meyasser Patadon, Cotabato City health chief.

Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani also announced on Wednesday that one of the 700 public utility vehicle (PUJ) drivers subjected to rapid diagnostic tests by the city health office turned positive for antibodies, and was about to be swab tested for confirmatory PCR tests when he went missing.

It turned out that the 49-year-old PUJ driver, a resident of Datu Piang, Maguindanao, went home after learning of the rapid test results.

“He did not escape, he surrendered to health workers in Maguindanao,” Guiani said, adding that the man went home, informed his family, and brought himself to the Maguindanao provincial hospital for medication.

In Cotabato province, three more persons tested positive for COVID-19, raising the province’s total cases to nine.

But Dr. Philbert Malaluan, speaking for the provincial inter-agency task force, said only four of these cases remained active since the five had already recovered.

Among the three new cases, a 38-year-old woman who recently returned home from Cebu City did not have the symptoms when she arrived.
She also tested negative during the rapid antibody test administered upon her arrival on June 16.

But later amid her 14-day quarantine, she experienced fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing.

“Now, she is closely watched by authorities,” said Malaluan, a member of the Cotabato provincial board.

The second patient is a 20-year-old man from Kidapawan City, who went to Davao City and had been exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 case. The man was part of the team that fetched stranded Cotabato residents in Davao City and had assisted a COVID-19 patient in Tulunan town. He is now confined at the University of Southern Mindanao hospital isolation facility.

The third case involved an 84-year-old man from Barangay Sudapin, Kidapawan City who had respiratory problems. He has been in and out of hospitals in Kidapawan City and Davao City and had been confined at the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.

LZB