MOUNTAIN Province recorded its first case of the new coronavirus disease Covid- 19 Tuesday, June16, 2020, after months of being free from the virus.
According to the Provincial Government, the first positive case in Mountain Province is a male from Suquib, Besao who was a close contact of a police officer from the Special Action Force who visited Besao on June 6.
In a Facebook post, Besao Covid–19 Task Force (CTF) said the 22 individuals, who are in close contact with the male patient, were already isolated and swabbed.
The Provincial CTFs are in constant coordination to prevent and mitigate possible spread of the virus.
In Baguio City, three additional confirmed Covid-19 cases were also recorded on June 16.
Mayor Benjie Magalong said the new patients include a 10-year-old girl from Barangay San Vicente who was exposed to a known positive case and a 30-year-old female hospital worker from Loakan Road.
Another patient is a 60-year-old from resident of Upper Irisan but was traced to be from Tuba, Benguet.
Magalong advised residents to maintain vigilance in observing health and safety protocols in the wake of the surge in cases not only in the city but also in nearby provinces.
In Benguet, a frontliner from La Trinidad was also found positive, bringing the total number of active cases in the province to 19.
The Provincial Government disclosed that the patient, a 29-year-old male with no travel history and is now in a stable condition.
The Health Department in the Cordillera region recorded 29 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Benguet with 10 recoveries in the previous month.
As of June 15, there are active Covid-19 cases from the towns of Bakun, Bokod, Buguias, Itogon, La Trinidad, Mankayan, Tuba and Sablan.
The Department of Health (DOH) Cordillera regional director Doctor Amelita Pangilinan said as of June 16, the region has logged 95 confirmed cases.
Pangilinan said Baguio has 39 cases followed by Benguet with 29 as Abra and Apayao have eight cases each while Kalinga has six with five in Ifugao.
CAR recorded a case fatality rate of one percent and a 51 percent recovery rate.
"The incidence rate in the region was recorded at five per 100,000 population while our case doubling time is at 13 days. Our present critical care is now at 37.5 percent which have already surpassed the safe zone while most affected age group was listed at 30 to 49–years–old with males as the most affected," Pangilinan said.
DOH Cordillera attributes the increase in confirmed cases due to the large number of laboratory tests now being done at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) coming from various sectors of society.
"We attribute the reason for the increase in cases due to the full blast focus on our risk based expanded testing and BGH sub-national lab now solely services the Cordillera Region as Regions 1 and 2 now has their own PCR engine laboratories to cater to their respective regions and actually, BGH now is testing around three hundred to five hundred tests per day which is only for CAR," Pangilinan added.
BGHMC being one of five initial hospital identified by the DOH as a regional testing laboratory for Covid-19 for Northern Luzon service Regions 1,2 and the Cordillera. | Jonathan Llanes with reports from Lauren Alimondo, Aileen Rueferzo/Baguio City Public Information Office, MP PDRRMO