Bukidnon province reported its first patient infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), local authorities said Thursday.
The patient was a PUI (person under investigation) in Barangay Lumbayao, Valencia City, and tested positive of the virus today.
Valencia City Mayor Azucena Huervas said the patient attended a cockfight derby at Matina Gallera in Davao City in March.
The provincial health office’s case bulletin said that aside from the first COVID-19 patient, Bukidnon also has 121 PUIs. Thirty-four of the PUIs are already isolated, while 4,841 are PUM of persons under monitoring, of whom 1,411 are quarantined.
Huervas urged her constituents to be extra careful and continue to stay at home during community quarantine to prevent the spread of the pandemic coronavirus.
The Valencia City Task Force Against COVID-19 is also conducting an extensive contact tracing or locating people who may have come in contact with the coronavirus carrier, she added.
Residents are urged to observe physical distancing and wear masks in public. The minors and senior citizens are placed under a 24-hour curfew.
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Bukidnon reports first COVID-19 case
Davao region on Monday said its health office traced 427 individuals who have attended the cockfight derby in Davao City last month.
The Davao Center for Health Development also reported 23 of the region’s 80 confirmed cases, as of Monday evening, had exposure to the derby. Six of the 11 deaths at the time also involved persons who were exposed to the said event.
As of this writing, the Davao region has 86 confirmed cases, with 13 deaths and 40 recoveries.
The Philippines, meanwhile, has 206 new cases and 21 new deaths today, April 9. This totals to 4,076 cases, 203 deaths, and 124 recoveries.
Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim donates 8 months salary for COVID-19 test kits
Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim donated his salary for eight months to buy 1,000 units of COVID-19 rapid anti-body test kits (RATKs).
“The test kits, which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, are sold commercially at about P1,000 each, costing Mayor Lim about P1 million, the equivalent of his salary for eight months,” Lim said in a statement.
The Mayor said he that even though RATKs are not confirmatory, the test kits would aid local officials make more “strategic” decisions to prevent the spread of the pandemic in their city.
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