Quezon COVID-19 death toll rises to 35

LUCENA CITY, Philippines  — The only remaining active carrier of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the island town of Perez in Quezon has died, bringing the total number of fatalities in the province to 35, authorities reported Sunday.

The latest COVID-19 related death was reported by the Integrated Provincial Health Office in its 10 a.m. bulletin but gave no additional details.

Perez  – situated on Alabat island off the Pacific Ocean with two other municipalities, Alabat and Quezon – recorded three COVID-19 cases since June 24. But two of the patients recovered on July 8 and 26, respectively.

As of Sunday, the province of Quezon, which reverted to general community quarantine (GCQ) until August 31, recorded 1,026 COVID-19 cases but 392 of which remain active virus carriers.

The province also logged 599 recoveries.

Meanwhile, Real town Mayor Diana Abigail Diestro-Aquino alerted her constituents to expect a surge of new positive cases pending the results of 188 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) laboratory tests on suspected virus carriers in the locality.

“The probability is high that there will be more positive cases since the pending test results were from close contacts of COVID-19 positives,” Diestro-Aquino announced on her Facebook Sunday.
She explained that she did not post the information card “to scare you but for us to face this together transparently and responsibly”.

Diestro-Aquino said the laboratory test results will be out in a day or two and asked her constituents to continue strictly observing all health and safety protocols against COVID-19.

On August 27, the local government placed two barangays under lockdown or “localized enhanced community quarantine” (LECQ) due to rising cases of COVID-19 cases that include four town councilors.

Real town, located in the northern part of the province, logged a total of 39 COVID-19 cases, 33 of which remained active.

/MUF