Zamboanga City monitors 13 new COVID-19 cases

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur—Health authorities here confirmed 13 new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Sunday, July 5, bringing to 235 the total number of cases recorded here, the city’s Task Force COVID-19 said.

Sheila Covarrubias, information officer of the Zamboanga City Task Force COVID-19, said of the 13 cases, nine are former inmates of the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center (ZCRC), two are former locally stranded individuals (LSIs) in Cebu City, and two are cases of local transmission.

She said the nine recently freed inmates remain stable and asymptomatic and will soon be moved from the Zamboanga Ecozone where they are staying to the Cabatangan evacuation facility.

The two LSIs arrived in Zamboanga from Cebu City on June 10. Both had mild symptoms and had been isolated at the Lantaka Isolation facility. Both had come in close contact with the city’s 188th patient, a 23-year old student.

Covarrubias said the two cases of local transmissions are a 73-year-old man from Lower Calarian who was admitted to a private hospital on July 2 due to fever, community-acquired pneumonia, hypertension and diabetes; and a 33-year old woman from Mampang who experienced flu-like symptoms and had been isolated at the Zamboanga City Medical Center.

Covarrubias said the city had 54 active COVID-19 cases, 174 recoveries, and seven dead.

/MUF