DUMAGUETE CITY—Two Negros Oriental natives who were repatriated from Metro Manila and Cebu became the latest COVID-19 patients in the province.
At a press briefing on Thursday (June 25), Dr. Liland Estacion, assistant provincial health officer, said the two new cases were recorded in northern Mabinay and Manjuyod towns.
The Manjuyod native, Estacion said, is a 27-year-old man who was repatriated from Minglanilla town in Cebu province.
The Mabinay native is a 22-year-old male from Poblacion village who came home from Caloocan City, Metro Manila via a mercy flight on June 16.
Both patients do not show COVID-19 symptoms and are now in isolation at government quarantine facilities in their towns, Estacion said.
She added that while health authorities are now tracing those who came in contact with the new patients, this would only yield few results as they had already been quarantined since their arrival in the province.
As of June 25, Negros Oriental has five active coronavirus cases.
The last cases reported were those of a 48-year-old male and his 33-year-old girlfriend in this city, a case of local transmission as the man infected his girlfriend, according to Estacion.
The male patient is now stable but is still in a private hospital here while his girlfriend is on home quarantine.
Another case, that of a stranded fisherman from northern Bindoy town, is still on quarantine since arriving in the province on a fishing boat, Philip D.R., last May 17.
The two new cases in Negros Oriental came a day after neighboring province Negros Occidental recorded its highest single-day increase in new coronavirus infections.
On Wednesday (June 24), Negros Occidental reported 21 new cases, all of whom involved stranded individuals who came from virus hot spots Cebu and Manila. The total number of infections in the region is now 68.
Estacion said that the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has yet to convene again to discuss actions to stop further virus transmission.
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson appealed to the national IATF to stop sending repatriates from Cebu.