9 Legazpi City Jail inmates, 6 Coast Guard personnel contract COVID-19

An illustration of SARS-CoV-2, courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (AFP/ Handout/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

LEGAZPI CITY — At least nine inmates of the Legazpi City Jail and six Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) personnel based in this city were among the 67 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) recorded on Saturday, the Legazpi City Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) said on Sunday.

Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal, the chairperson of the City IATF, said the jail inmates who were tested positive for COVID-19 were all asymptomatic and are currently quarantined in a separate isolation facility at the city jail, a compound in Barangay (village) Bogtong here.

Rosal, in a phone interview, said the inmates could have been infected by relatives that visit them at the city jail facility.

He said he directed the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) to field additional contact tracers to locate the people who made close contact with these inmates.

Meanwhile, the infected PCG personnel were taken to the Legazpi City Quarantine Facility at the Ibalong Center for Recreation (ICR) in Barangay Bitano.

The city on Saturday logged 67 new cases, the highest number for the past five days, which brings the number of active cases to 561.

The city also recorded a total of 1,277 cumulative cases since March 2020, with 692 recoveries and 24 deaths.

On Saturday, Bicol logged 240 new cases, bringing the total number of active cases to 4,221 with 58 recoveries and 23 deaths.

The DOH tracker on Saturday, June 5, revealed that there are 13,227 cumulative cases in the region since the pandemic started with 8,562 recoveries, and 444 recorded deaths.

/MUF