TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – Ten people in this city have contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) after being exposed this week to a non-uniformed employee of the Tuguegarao police.
Two of them confirmed they have the disease on Saturday (August 22).
A 35-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman reported having interacted with the non-uniformed personnel, who also had infected her husband and her father. The employee is now confined to a hospital, according to health officials.
She resides at Cataggaman Viejo village which has been locked down for disinfection, and to allow contact tracing to proceed. The central office of the Tuguegarao Police was also closed and was being sanitized.
The two new patients have no travel histories and have submitted to home quarantine. The eight other patients live in Cataggaman Viejo or in streets close to the employee’s residence.
Also on Saturday, a 54-year-old man from Iguig town died at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) in this city, before the laboratory had determined if he was afflicted with COVID-19.
Dr. Glenn Mathew Baggao, CVMC hospital chief, said the man suffered from hypertension and heart disease, and had displayed symptoms of the virus. “Pending his test results, the fatality is currently a suspected COVID-19 case,” he said.