Pampanga town gets 1st COVID-19 case after returning worker infects relative

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO –– After 148 days of being free of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Pampanga town of Masantol has recorded its first case in a 41-year-old man who was infected by a relative working in Muntinlupa City.

Masantol Mayor Danilo Guinto said six other people in the sub-village of Ipil-Ipil in Barangay Bebe Anac have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19 despite being exposed to the same worker.

Eight persons who came in close contact with the first case have been isolated and are due for swab tests on Wednesday. They were identified during a 48-hour lockdown that began on Tuesday.

“Our border control has been strict. I don’t know how that worker from [Barangay] Alabang managed to sneak in. Has he entered Masantol via the coast? I really don’t know,” the mayor said.

The worker, 37, has received death threats for returning to Alabang, according to his relatives who asked a news source to relay the situation to the INQUIRER.

The worker took a rapid test on July 22 and took a swab test on July 30. In between those dates, he visited his family and relatives in Bebe Anac, mingled with them, and had a drinking session with cousins and uncles.

The lab result released on July 31 detected the virus.

According to the source, the police came looking for the Alabang worker on Aug. 1 but some relatives hid him until he managed to return to Muntinlupa.

LZB