Boat captain from Negros Occidental dies of COVID-19

BACOLOD CITY –– A boat captain from San Carlos City in Negros Occidental died of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City at 5:50 p.m. on Monday.

Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, provincial health officer, said the patient was the first COVID-19 fatality in Negros Occidental.

The San Carlos City government, in a post on its Facebook page, said the 77-year-old patient was rushed to the San Carlos City Hospital on July 20 due to difficulty of breathing and body malaise. He was intubated and stabilized before he was referred to a hospital in Bacolod City.

On Friday, he tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the San Carlos Incident Management Team to urgently call for rapid contact tracing.

The patient was a ferry boat captain of a shipping line that plies the San Carlos City-Toledo City route.

The San Carlos City government said all those identified as “close contacts” of the patient, who include quarantined co-workers from the ferry boat and others in a government quarantine facility, were swabbed for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests by the Provincial Health Office.

Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said about 30 health workers at the San Carlos City Hospital were also swabbed for RT-PCR testing.

RT-PCR test, which uses actual swabs from patients’ nose or throat, is the most popular testing method for COVID-19 in the Philippines and is still considered by health authorities as the “gold standard” for detecting the coronavirus.

LZB