Woman contracts COVID-19 after giving birth in Quezon hospital

LUCENA CITY –– A 39-year-old woman in Lucban town in Quezon province who just gave birth at the government hospital here contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the town mayor said Friday.

Mayor Celso Olivier Dator announced on his Facebook page that Patient No. 16 had a normal delivery at the provincial government-run Quezon Medical Center (QMC) on August 25.

The patient submitted herself to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on August 26 that turned out positive the next day.

Dator did not provide information on how the asymptomatic patient contracted the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

He said the patient resides in Barangay Atolinao but had also stayed in Barangay 5 for two weeks before her hospital confinement to deliver her baby.

Incidentally, Dr. Belen Garana, head of QMC – Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) announced on Thursday, August 27, that the ward would be placed under “total lockdown” starting August 31 until September 14 following the rise in COVID-19 cases among its pregnant patients during the past two weeks.

Most of the infected patients are asymptomatic and were admitted to the non-COVID areas of the OB-GYN department.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, Quezon, which reverted to general community quarantine (GCQ) until August 31, recorded 981 COVID-19 cases, 399 of which are active virus carriers.

The latest data from the Integrated Provincial Health Office also showed that the province logged 549 recoveries and 33 fatalities.

LZB