5 pregnant women from Leyte test positive for COVID-19

TACLOBAN CITY –– Five pregnant women from the town of Carigara in Leyte province tested positive for new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Maricel Pores, one of the members of the swab testing group in Carigara, said two of these women were scheduled to deliver their babies today, Nov. 2, while the three others may give birth within the month.

These five women were swabbed on Oct. 29 with the positive result released the following day by the Department of Health (DOH).

All of them were immediately placed in an isolation facility together with their husbands.

Pores said they had no idea how these women, aged 20 to 30, acquired the virus.

“Contact tracing is now being done for us to determine where they acquired the virus,” Pores said.

She also assured the public that the doctors and other medical staff at the Carigara District Hospital, who would help these women deliver their babies, would take the necessary measures so they wouldn’t acquire the COVID-19 virus.

“This is the first time we have this kind of situation. The last time we conducted a swab test on pregnant women was on Oct. 19. All of them in that batch yielded negative results,” she said.

As of Monday, the DOH said 6,775 persons tested positive for the COVID-19 in Eastern Visayas.

At least 63 deaths were recorded since the start of the pandemic.

The latest fatalities involved a 51-year-old man from Kananga town, Leyte, and a 68-year-old woman from Las Navas in Northern Samar. The two died on October 31.

ZB