Another remote island town in Quezon logs 1st 2 COVID-19 cases

LUCENA CITY –– Panukulan town, another remote island municipality in Quezon province, recorded its first two coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases Friday morning.

The local government of Panukulan reported on its Facebook page that the two patients – male, 42, and female, 49, from Barangay San Juan – arrived in the locality on August 4.

According to the report, the two had been exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 patient in Valenzuela City.

But they were only subjected to a “rapid test” on August 17 that turned out positive and had a subsequent swab test the next day.

The “positive” test results came out Friday morning. Officials are conducting contact tracing.

Panukulan and two other municipalities — Polillo and Burdeos — are located on Polillo Island off Lamon Bay facing the Pacific Ocean in the northern part of the province.

Polillo logged the first of its two cases on June 16, but one of them had died.

The other island town of Patnanungan, also located in the Polillo group of islands, recorded its first case on July 9.

On Thursday, Jomalig, the farthest island town in Quezon located near the Polillo island also recorded its first two COVID-19 cases.

Only Burdeos and the towns of Plaridel, San Francisco, and San Andres remain COVID-19 free from among 41 municipalities in the province.

Quezon, which is under general community quarantine, logged 792 COVID-19 cases, 365 of which are active. The province also recorded a total of 403 recoveries and 24 deaths.

LZB