TAGUM City's first coronavirus disease (Covid-19) death is a priest.
Covid-19 City Task Force of Tagum City, through the city government's Facebook page, announced Fr. Arnel Celis was the person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus which causes Covid-19 but succumbed to a stroke on Monday, April 27.
The city's earlier announcement concealed his identity and described him as a resident of Barangay Visayan Village.
His official test result was released by the Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC) on April 29, Wednesday afternoon but he already experienced a stroke.
The city task force previously admitted that tracing people who had close contact with Celis was challenging after he suffered a stroke.
But on Thursday, April 30, the task force said they were permitted by Celis' family to reveal his name to expedite contact tracing.
"Tungod kay puro secondary sources lang ang nakuha sa among monitoring team sanglit na-stroke ang pasyente, gitugutan kami sa pamilya nga imantala ang iyang pangalan aron makatabang sa contact tracing (Since our monitoring team can only access secondary sources because the patient had a stroke, we were allowed by his family to publish his name to help us in the contact-tracing)," the post said.
The City Government of Tagum urged people who were with Celis starting April 5 to April 22 to undergo 14-day self-isolation and to inform the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team for them to be monitored.
"Ang tibuok katawhan sa Tagum naghandom ug nagpasalamat sa kontribusyon ni Father Celis sa atong syudad (The people of Tagum City are thankful for the contribution of Father Celis to our city)," the post said.
"Labing mapasalamaton ang City Government of Tagum sa kooperasyon sa pamilya ni Fr. Celis sa among ginabuhat nga contact tracing (The City Government of Tagum is grateful for the cooperation of Fr. Celis' family in our contact-tracing efforts)," it added.
Sunstar Davao tried to reach out to health authorities from DRMC but they could not be contacted.
