DUMAGUETE CITY –– At least 13 more soldiers of the Philippine Army in Negros Oriental tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In a press briefing on Thursday, Dr. Liland Estacion, assistant provincial health officer, said the soldiers assigned at the Philippine Army’s 302nd Infantry Brigade were among the 16 latest coronavirus cases in the province.
The soldiers, she said, arrived in the province late last month after they were deployed in Cebu City.
There are now 20 soldiers in Negros Oriental who were infected with the virus.
They have been placed under isolation inside their brigade’s headquarters at Camp Leon Kilat in Barangay Santa Cruz Viejo, Tanjay City.
Col. Noel Baluyan of the Philippine Army’s 302nd Brigade Command said all the infected soldiers in the province were deployed in Cebu City since March to implement the community quarantine measures there.
The three other new cases in Negros Oriental are two residents of Amlan town and Bais City who were repatriated into the province as locally stranded individuals.
The Amlan residents are an 11-year-old boy and a 33-year-old female, who are family members of the 36-year-old female, who earlier tested positive for the COVID-19 on July 4. They all arrived home through a private van from Mandaue City, Cebu.
Bais City also reported its first confirmed case on Thursday involving a 60-year-old female native who was repatriated from Bulacan.
All three patients are isolated at the government quarantine facilities in their respective localities.
Since the pandemic started, Negros Oriental has recorded at least 55 COVID-19 cases. Thirty of these are active, while one has died.
Estacion said all the new cases were not caused by local transmission but were “imported” cases mostly from Cebu.