Individuals who were earlier stranded in Manila and were bound for Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawiboarded a bus bound for Maguindanao on Saturday, July 11. Seventy-nine of them have been tested positive for COVID-19, BARMM officials said. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
COTABATO CITY—The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) recorded its single day highest tally of COVID-19 cases, 79, on Monday (July 13), raising the region’s total to 316 cases.
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM interior minister and regional spokesperson, said the new patients were among 499 stranded individuals who had been sent to the region from Metro Manila, epicenter of coronavirus infections, through the national government’s “Hatid Tulong” program.
The stranded individuals were returning to their hometowns in the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
They arrived in Cagayan de Oro City by boat and were fetched by the BARMM regional government which transferred them to Maguindanao province in isolation facilities being run by the BARMM.
Sinarimbo told reporters on Monday that the stranded people were tested for coronavirus. Those who tested positive would be tested again more exhaustively.
“Unfortunately, 79 were confirmed to have the SARS-CoV2 virus,” Sinarimbo said.
The new COVID-19 patients are now confined in the BARMM quarantine facility in Salimbao, Sultan Kudarat.
“We are closely watching them to prevent local transmission and save our people,” Sinarimbo said.
He said he expected the number of COVID-19 cases to increase as more stranded individuals were still awaiting results of their tests.
But Sinarimbo said all health protocols had been strictly followed to protect health workers and others who had to care for the new patients.
TSB