3 Palawan returnees test positive for COVID-19

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY –– Three new confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were reported in Palawan, raising the tally to 34 as the island province continued to welcome locally stranded individuals (LSIs).

Dr. Dean Palanca, commander of Puerto Princesa City’s Incident Management Team (IMT), said in an advisory aired live on Facebook Wednesday, that the city’s new patient was a locally stranded returnee who arrived on June 28 aboard a 2Go Shipping Vessel.

The 44-year-old female was placed in one of the city’s isolation facilities.

In the southern town of Bataraza, mayor Abraham Ibba, in a phone interview Wednesday, said two new male locally stranded returnees, a 34-year-old, and a 42-year-old, tested positive for COVID-19.

They were close contacts of the previously reported cases in the town during their trip home.

Flights and ferries for stranded individuals returning to Palawan would continue, according to Provincial Information Officer (PIO) Winston Arzaga.

This, after presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, disclosed that Palawan was not among the list of areas or provinces with a moratorium on the return of locally stranded individuals (LSIs).

“Maybe we’re not included on the moratorium because we still have a few incidences of COVID-19,” Arzaga said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Area 4, which handles the Puerto Princesa International Airport, also announced in a separate statement that no airline had canceled their flights going to and from the city.

Palawan province has a total of 34 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, with four recoveries, one casualty, and 29 active cases.

As of Wednesday noon, there were 13 active cases in Puerto Princesa; six in Sofronio Española; four in Bataraza; and three each in Coron and Busuanga.

LZB