Body of Zambo Covid patient handed to jail authorities

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The body of a local prisoner who died from the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) was handed to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, according to Dr Justin Faber, a spokesman for the Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC).

Health authorities begun tracing people who may have close contact with the patient - who had tuberculosis - when he was alive in an effort to prevent the spread of the deadly Covid-19.

The City Health Office under Dr Dulce Miravite coordinated with the ZCMC when it received reports about the patient and immediately brought him to hospital for medical examination and laboratory testing as a protocol.  

Faber said the City Health Office followed protocols in coordinating with the ZCMC in the case of ZC-09, the code used to tag the patient being the 9^th Covid positive case in Zamboanga City.

The patient died on April 20 at ZCMC, but this was only confirmed April 25 by the Department of Health (DOH) after receiving the test results, and announced by the local government of Zamboanga later in the day.

“He was an inmate at the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center (ZCRC). He complained of sudden shortness of breath on April 20 and was brought to the Mindanao Central Sanitarium Hospital for consultation where he was tagged as person under investigation. He was later transferred to ZCMC but passed away while at the emergency room due to respiratory failure with underlying pulmonary tuberculosis infection,” the local government said.

 “The ZCRC management in collaboration with the City Government is taking all necessary measures, based on protocol, to contain the spread of the virus. The CRC remains on lockdown since the start of the enhanced community quarantine last March 20,” the local government said in its announcement.

It was unclear how the ZC-09 contracted the disease since the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center remains under lockdown since last month. The City Health Office has begun mass testing all prisoners to determine if any of them are infected with the virus.

Zamboanga City remains under a strict community quarantine while the local government works on a comprehensive economic recovery and rehabilitation plan as part of its Covid-19 response structure.

The local task force on Covid-19 headed by Mayor Beng Climaco said Zamboanga has a total of 9 positive cases - including the latest fatality - and 267 suspected cases, although 107 of them had been tested again and are now free from the viral infection, and 76 others are still waiting for their test results. But 42 other had died from suspected Covid-19 since last month. (Zamboanga Post)

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