Quezon logs 62 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death

LUCENA CITY – Quezon province recorded 62 new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and one fatality on Easter Sunday, April 4.

The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) in its bulletin Sunday at 10 a.m., reported that Sariaya town recorded the highest number of new cases with 19, followed by Dolores, 16.

The IPHO also said that a confirmed virus carrier in the island town of Quezon succumbed to the dreaded illness, bringing the COVID-19 death toll in the province to 293.

As of April 4, Quezon, which is still under modified general community quarantine, has so far logged 8,323 COVID-19 cases and 7,328 recoveries since the pandemic broke out in March last year.

As of April 4, the province still has 702 active cases.

Infanta town topped the list among 41 localities in the province with the highest number of active cases with 96, followed by Sariaya, 75, and Lucena City, the provincial capital, 64.

Meanwhile, the municipal health office of Lucban town clarified that town Mayor Olivier Dator’s declaration that a local COVID-19 patient had allegedly died from a United Kingdom (UK) variant of the coronavirus was overblown.

“We would like to make it clear that the mayor only wanted to quote one of the medical professionals who attended the deceased patient that there is a big possibility that it was caused by a UK variant,” the health office said in a statement issued Saturday night.

Local health authorities admitted that “no confirmatory test was yet performed.”

“We are already trying to process a genome sequencing of a direct contact of the late patient,” it said, and added that the local chief executive “only wanted the residents here to be vigilant and safe.”

“Instead of downplaying the situation, he was not taking any chances that the new variant might have caused the demise of the abovementioned,” the health office stressed.