TACLOBAN CITY — The mayor of Palapag town in Northern Samar on Friday died due to complications from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Manuel Aoyang, the first elected official in Eastern Visayas to die of COVID-19, passed on around 1:30 a.m. in a private hospital in Tacloban City
He was 68.
“(The entire) town is mourning. The flag (at the municipal building) is now at half-staff to show our respect to our mayor,” Dr. Delia Chy, the town’s health officer, said in a phone interview.
Aoyang was buried at the town’s Catholic cemetery on Friday shortly after his death.
Aoyang was on his third and last term as mayor of Palapag, which has more than 38,000 people spread on its 33 barangays.
Vice Mayor Marlon Agno will assume as mayor of the town.
Chy said Aoyang was brought to the hospital last Oct. 27 and was swabbed the next day.
On Oct. 29, test results were released showing that the mayor was positive for COVID-19.
His son and wife, who accompanied the mayor while he was confined at the hospital, tested positive and negative respectively.
Palapag currently has 35 coronavirus cases.
As of Thursday, Eastern Visayas has recorded 100 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the region’s total number of infections to 7,147.
The Department of Health said the new cases were from Leyte with 37; Samar, 33; Northern Samar, 25; and Eastern Samar, 5.
LZB