Zamboanga records 3rd Covid-19 patient

ZAMBOANGA CITY – A 30-year old woman here has been tested positive for the new coronavirus, making her the 3^rd to be infected with the deadly respiratory disease, or Covid-19, in Zamboanga City and the 5^th in the Western Mindanao region in southern Philippines.

Mayor Beng Climaco confirmed this on Wednesday, saying, the patient who is a resident of Tetuan village, had no travel history outside Zamboanga. 

“The third COVID case in Zamboanga City is confirmed today, April 1. The 3rd confirmed case is a 30-year-old female from Tetuan, with no travel history. She is currently confined at the Zamboanga City Medical Center,” she said.

A neigborhood in Tetuan where the patient reportedly lives is now under total lockdown and residents are not allowed to roam the streets and only told to stay at home. It was unknown how villagers would sustain their daily needs. 

Climaco again appealed to residents to stay at home and maintain cleanliness at all times to avoid getting the virus.

“Once again, we remind the public to please remain calm and to remain home. At this time, the best course of action to take is to stay home, maintain social distancing, and practice regular hand washing. Do not go out of your house and please do not panic,” she said.

On March, Climaco also announced that a local woman who had travelled to Manila and returned home was tested positive for the coronavirus. She said the 48-year old woman is from Tumaga village and is now in hospital.

She is the second Covid-19 positive patient after a 29-year old man, who returned here from Manila, was also tested positive for the Covid-19, as announced by Climaco on March 25. The man is now placed under a strict quarantine.

The local government imposed an enhanced community quarantine since early this month to stop the spread of the virus that has infected over 2000 people in the country and had already killed at least 8 dozen more, mostly in metropolitan areas in Luzon and the number of infected people continue to increase with no signs of the virus contamination slowing down.

Zamboanga City now has 22 persons under investigation, or PUIs, after 17 of them tested negative, and over 1700 persons under monitoring, or PUMs, although more than 500 completed their 2-week home quarantine.

PUI is a person that shows symptoms of cough, colds and fever with a travel or contact history to countries or person that is affected with Covid-19. And PUM are those with travel and contact history to countries or person that is affected with Covid 19 but not displayed any symptoms and is advised to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine at home to be monitored by health workers.

Two other positive Covid-19 cases were also reported in Zamboanga del Sur province on March 30 - a 52-year old man in Labangan town and a 62-year old woman in the capital city of Pagadian. Both patients had travelled history in Manila and returned home separately on commercial plane on March 14 and March 8, respectively.

The Covid-19, now a global pandemic, broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year, and quickly spread to over 100 countries with China recording over 81,000 infections and more than 3,200 deaths. (Zamboanga Post)

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