Alcoholic data: 4 of every 10 on quarantine in Naga drinking buddies of COVID-19 patients

LEGAZPI CITY—Four of every 10 persons, who are now on quarantine in Naga City, had been drinking buddies of patients who had tested positive for SARS Cov2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to the mayor of Naga.

Mayor Nelson Legacion, at an online press briefing on Monday (July 6), said four more patients were added to Naga’s COVID-19 tally. Naga now has more COVID-19 cases than any other city or town in the Bicol region.

“At present, almost 40 percent of the persons in our contact tracing and inside our quarantine facilities were drinking mates of some of our patients,” Legacion said.

He said that this was the case at the villages of Concepcion Pequeña and Pacol.

In an area in Concepcion Pequeña, locally known as the “Spillway,” at least 17 have tested positive for the virus after they were exposed to two returnees who arrived from the town of Naic in virus hot spot Cavite province last June 14.

One of the four new patients tagged on Monday had a “drinking session” with one of the contacts, who tested positive on July 2.

The mayor, however, did not give exact numbers of those being watched after having drinking sessions.

Bicol’s total COVID-19 cases had risen to 166.

According to the DOH, bed capacity is starting to be filled up in the Bicol region. In current use is one of 37 ICU beds, 37 of 276 isolation beds and 50 of 147 COVID-19 ward beds.

But none of the region’s 25 ventilators, machines that aid breathing, are being used as of now, according to the DOH.

TSB