In Batanes, second death from COVID-19 comes quickly

ITBAYAT, Batanes, Philippines — This province on Wednesday recorded its second death related to COVID-19 after another elderly man succumbed to the viral disease, the local government said.

The fatality was an 88-year-old resident of Barangay Kayhuvokan in the capital town of Basco. His death came three days after a 70-year-old man, also a resident of Basco, died from COVID-19 complications.

Government data also showed that 41 new COVID-19 cases were registered in the province on Tuesday, raising its active infections to 451.

Batanes had registered 483 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic struck last year, most of which were logged this month.

At least 323 of these active cases were recorded in Basco alone. The other active infections were registered in the towns of Uyugan with 35, Ivana with 30, Mahatao with 27, Sabtang with 19 and Itbayat with 17.

Airport isolation

Records from the provincial COVID-19 task force showed that 426 of the cases being treated in various health facilities were mild while 21 were either severe or moderate. The remaining four were critical cases.Due to the virus surge, the regional office of the Department of Health in Cagayan Valley said it would send more health-care workers to this northernmost province to augment the workforce treating COVID-19 patients.

Itbayat Mayor Ronald Gutierrez on Wednesday said he asked the Civil Aeronautics Board to allow the local government to put up an isolation facility at the town’s airport to accommodate some returning residents.

The province’s first community transmission of the virus was confirmed on Sept. 16 after four Basco residents tested positive for COVID-19 without an unknown source.

Four days later, it logged its highest number of new cases after 100 more residents, who were mostly from Basco, contracted the virus. But it was not immediately known how many of these were close contacts of the four cases reported earlier.

The province recorded only three COVID-19 cases last year and only 14 cases this year before the community outbreak this month.

Baguio situation

In Baguio City, Mayor Benjamin Magalong had directed those who would take licensure examinations to leave the city immediately once they complete their tests.

Baguio has been hosting board examinations administered by the Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC) since February, which have not been canceled despite a wave of COVID-19 infections.

Attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant, the spike in transmissions raised the active cases in the city to 4,416 as of Tuesday.

Magalong said Baguio had been getting an average of 200 cases daily this month, which pushed the city’s total infections to 24,057. On Tuesday, for instance, laboratory tests confirmed 331 new infections.

When COVID-19 infections spread faster than usual between August and September, the PRC oversaw 3,277 examinees who took licensure exams for mining, electrical and mechanical engineering, teaching, library work, electricians and respiratory therapists.

But 1,603 examinees did not come to their test schedules during that period, possibly due to fear of exposure to the virus, said Juanita Domogen, the PRC Cordillera director.

Domogen attributed the absence of other examinees to the cost of the mandatory quarantine in Baguio and tests required before they could enter the city.

—REPORTS FROM NATHAN ALCANTARA, VILLAMOR VISAYA JR. AND VINCENT CABREZA