LUCENA CITY –– After months of being able to keep itself free from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), San Narciso town in Quezon province recorded its first two cases involving two persons from the same family who got infected when they attended a wake in another town of the province.
The two new COVID-19 patients were among the 45 cases in Quezon recorded from 5 p.m. August 18 to 7 p.m., August 19, the biggest spike of coronavirus carriers in the province, the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) disclosed.
Dr. Maria Angela Tanjuatco, San Narciso health officer, said the female patients, aged 36 and 12, contracted the respiratory disease during a wake in General Luna town when they had direct contact with one of the mourners who later tested positive for COVID-19.
The patients had been placed in isolation since August 10 after officials in their town were alerted by the General Luna municipal health office that they were among those who had come in contact with the virus patient at the wake.
The laboratory test results on the two came out positive on Wednesday, August 19.
In Real town in the northern part of the province, the local government placed four barangays under “special concern lockdown” for five days starting Wednesday after the locality recorded three new COVID-19 cases.
The lockdown period will affect 68 families who reside in the vicinity of the three new patients.
“The affected families have been informed. They will receive relief aid,” Mayor Diana Abigail Diestro-Aquino said.
Quezon, which reverted to general community quarantine from August 16 to 31, also recorded 367 recoveries as of Wednesday, with the addition of 32 patients who have recuperated.
The province has 358 remaining active virus carriers and 24 fatalities as of August 19.
Out of 41 municipalities in the province, only six now remain COVID-19-free.
Gov. Danilo Suarez has expressed alarm over the continued rise in the number of confirmed cases in the province.
LZB