By Uriel C. Quilinguing, Contributing Editor
THE last of five family members from Dabatian Street, Barangay Carmen, this city, who were all tested positive for coronavirus almost two months ago, was swabbed for the seventh time yesterday and is awaiting confirmatory test result.
Dr. Joselito Retuya, epidemiologist of the City Health Office, said the 31-year old female has been symptomless from the time she, along with her father, sister, brother and niece, were brought to the temporary treatment and monitoring facility (TTMF) June 8.
Yesterday, she was one of the 21 Covid-19 patients who had their repeat swabs.
She was placed on isolation after her older sister, a 34-year old peanut butter maker, was rushed to the state-run Northern Mindanao Medical Center due to diarrhea and breathing difficulty but was declared dead on arrival June 7, and her post-mortem specimen was tested positive for the virus.
Her four family members had yielded negative test results after over a month in isolation and had been reintegrated into their community.
“It’s been our policy that no one will be allowed to leave from isolation units or from the TTMF until one is cleared from the virus,” Retuya said.
Asked why some need repeat swabs, the resident city epidemiologist said that there are instances when remnants of the virus remain in the patient’s body and these are detected in tests, be it rapid or the gold-standard RT-PCR test.
So far, there is no evidence yet that patients with detected virus remnants or leftovers are infectious and that these could trigger immune response.
Aside from the 21 outpatients, the city has 46 other active cases of Covid-19 but none of them is admitted in a hospital, out of the 134 cumulative confirmed infections since March 14, this year. This include the eight new infections, all under the returning overseas Filipinos and locally stranded individuals (ROF/LSI) that were confirmed and tagged to the city yesterday.
Sixty-one of the 134 have already recovered, including three new recoveries, but there were six who had died, most of them had underlying health issues.
All over Northern Mindanao, the Department of Health regional office 10 has logged in a cumulative total of 480 confirmed Covid-19 cases: 415 of these are classified as returning overseas Filipinos/locally stranded individuals, and 65 are cases of local transmissions.
