LUCENA CITY –– This capital city of Quezon province recorded its first coronavirus disease (COVID-19) fatality, while the town of Dolores also disclosed that a health worker became the first virus carrier in the locality.
In its 8 a.m. report, the Quezon public information office said new cases were also reported in the towns of Guinayangan with three; and Atimonan, Infanta, and Perez towns with one each.
There were also two recoveries from Lucena City and Pagbilao town.
Quezon, still under the modified general community quarantine, now has at least 256 COVID-19 cases, but 185 have recovered and 14 others have died.
The province now has 57 active virus carriers. Out of 41 municipalities in the province, only 11 other towns remain virus-free.
The local government of Dolores disclosed that their first COVID-19 case was a 48-year-old female health worker in one of the hospitals in neighboring San Pablo City in Laguna.
The patient was symptomatic but in a stable condition in a hospital.
Health authorities are conducting contact tracing to prevent the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, the first fatality from Lucena is a 75-year-old woman from the coastal village of Dalahican.
Local health authorities said her cause of death was “congestive heart failure secondary to acute myocardial infarction.”
Lucena Mayor Roderick Alcala said he would call for an emergency
meeting with the local Inter-Agency Task Force to address the call of President Duterte to local officials to “do more” to prevent the rise of COVID-19 infections in the country.