Another Sorsogon evacuee tests positive for COVID-19

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SORSOGON PROVINCIAL INFORMATION OFFICE

LEGAZPI CITY—Another resident of Juban town in Sorsogon province, who was evacuated due to the eruption of Mt. Bulusan, had tested positive for COVID-19, an official said.

Dr. Edric Vargas, in charge of the disaster risk reduction and management health section of the town’s rural health unit, said the 82-year-old man is the father of the first reported COVID-19 patient at the Juban Evacuation Center in Barangay Tughan. The elderly man’s reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test yielded a positive result on Friday morning.

Vargas said the latest COVID-19 patient was one of the two close contacts of the 45-year-old woman isolated at the Sorsogon Provincial Hospital.

The elderly man exhibited mild symptoms and remained quarantined at the evacuation center. The other close contact tested negative in the RT-PCR test but remained quarantined in the same area.

Vargas said the patients were among the 244 people belonging to 73 families that reside in Barangay Puting Sapa but were temporarily given shelter at the evacuation center.

Those who were decamped on Tuesday from the same evacuation center were also being monitored for COVID-19 symptoms.

In the phreatic eruptions on June 5 and June 12, the volcano spewed ash that reached several villages in the towns of Juban, Magallanes, Castilla and Pilar, and Sorsogon City in Sorsogon and Legazpi City in Albay. —MA. APRIL MIER-MANJARES

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