4 new Covid-19 cases push Normin’s count to 29

THE Department of Health in Region 10 last night listed four more Covid-19 cases, bringing Northern Mindanao’s total novel coronavirus infections to 29 from 25 on Tuesday.

Of the 29 patients, seven are being taken care of by health workers, 14 have recovered, and eight died since the start of the public health crisis here.

Also indicated in the Covid-19 briefer yesterday was that two of the four outpatients have been in Cagayan de Oro’s isolation units while the other two are still in Metro Manila being quarantined but tagged as Bukidnon and Misamis Occidental residents.

Of the city’s 12 confirmed cases, three are active. Four Covid-19 have recovered while five died.

Bukidnon, still in the thick of contact tracing due to the confirmed infection of a 45-year-old male nurse on Monday, has another active case, and it’s third confirmed Covid-19 case in the province after a village official’s recovery last month.

Four of Misamis Occidental’s Covid-19 patients recovered, and another died. The province, however, registered a new case.

DOH regional director Adriano Suba-an on Tuesday said the tagging of patients is primarily based on the case investigation (CIF) form entries that are filled out prior to the 14-day prescribed quarantine period.

Suba-an’s explanation came after a 26-year-old male resident of Iligan, who arrived from Cebu on May 19 via a “mercy voyage,” was brought to an isolation unit in this city and later tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

He was stranded in Cebu where he was supposed to take the now-cancelled architectural board examinations. He gave a dormitory in Cagayan de Oro as his address.

Incidentally, one of his co-passengers, a 25-year-old female resident of Lumbia, this city, was also tested positive and has requested admission on Monday at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center.

“The CIF is important, with that we will know where one is from,” said Suba-an, even as he cited instances where one has multiple addresses, hence the places where a person had stayed for last six months is deemed his residence.

He said there were two other instances, that of an 18-year old male cancer patient, a resident of Bulua, who had chemotherapy sessions in Davao City, got infected and eventually died. He was tagged as a Covid-19 confirmed patient from Cagayan de Oro. Another was a repatriated seaman from Ozamiz who was tested positive while in an isolation facility in Pasay City.

Entries in the DOH-10 Covid-19 briefer also include two confirmed cases from Lanao del Sur—one has recovered and the other had died–since their families requested their kins be listed with Iligan City, claiming they have residences there, too.

Suba-an said this was a decision agreed upon by local chief executives “because of fear and apprehension of different local government units who don’t want their localities be included in the list” of those with confirmed Covid-19 cases. (Uriel C. Quilinguing)