Oro’s 10th Covid patient traveled from Cebu with 13 other virus carriers

A 25-YEAR-OLD student who became Cagayan de Oro’s 10th Covid-19 patient was among the young people who traveled aboard a vessel from Cebu under the government’s Balik Probinsiya program.

Fourteen of them, including the architecture graduate from Iligan and 12 students from Maguindanao, tested positive for Covid-19.

The students, who were stranded in Cebu City during the lockdown, availed of the government program to go back to their respective hometowns.

At least 25 of them arrived in Cagayan de Oro aboard a 2Go vessel on May 19.
Nine students were immediately quarantined in Cagayan de Oro while the Maguindanao provincial government fetched 16 other students. Of the 16, 12 tested positive for Covid-19.

Dr. Joselito Retuya, chief epidemiologist at the Cagayan de Oro City Health Office, said the latest to be found positive for Covid-19 was a 25-year-old female student from Barangay Lumbia, this city.

Retuya said the student has coughs, diarrhea, and is experiencing shortness of breath. She is, however, in stable condition, Retuya said.

The first student to have been found positive of the coronavirus was a 26-year-old architectural graduate who hails from Iligan City.

Retuya said the source of infection might be at the port of Cebu where they stayed for four days while waiting for passage to Cagayan de Oro.

“The source of infection was not from Cebu or from the boat,” Retuya said.
He said all nine students were quarantined in an undisclosed place in Cagayan de Oro soon after they arrived here on May 19.

Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan, minister of Health of the Bangsamoro region, said 12 of the returning Maguindanao students were found positive after they underwent reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests on Tuesday.

Dipatuan said they learned that the students were not tested before they left the Cebu port. (Froilan Gallardo)