CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The arrival here of stranded individuals, who tested positive for coronavirus, spoiled the celebratory mood of health officials who had announced two achievements in the city’s fight against COVID-19—a slowdown in local virus transmission and halt in hospital admissions.
Dr. Joselito Retuya, chief epidemiologist of the Cagayan de Oro health office, said seven returning residents were found positive for SARS Cov2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This brought to 53 the number of COVID-19 cases in the city.
The new cases came as health officials said they had contained local coronavirus transmission to a minimum and, for the first time in months, there had been no admission in the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) of COVID-19 patients.
Retuya said the returning De Oro natives had been put on quarantine in various facilities in the city as soon as their test results were known.
Of the seven cases, six were those of returning residents from COVID-19 epicenter Metro Manila and one overseas Filipina from Canada.
Mayor Oscar Moreno said he expected the number of COVID-19 cases to rise as the influx of returning overseas workers and stranded residents from Manila continued at the Laguindingan Airport and Macabalan Port here.
Of the 182 COVID-19 cases in Northern Mindanao, 149 cases, or 81 percent, involved overseas workers and returning residents.
Moreno said returning overseas workers and stranded residents had to undergo 14-days of quarantine upon arrival here as a precaution.
“We cannot close our borders to these people. Imagine if these are your family members and relatives,” Moreno said.
He said most of the new cases were those of people showing no symptoms but are now being treated at city facilities.
NMMC spokesperson Dr. Bernard Rocha said the best strategy to stop the infection remained to be the strict implementation of social distancing, the wearing of masks in public places and frequent washing of hands.
He said no patient had been admitted in the NMMC for more than two weeks.