Tuguegarao City, Cagayan—Official of the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) has confirmed its first patient positive of COVID-19 by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
In a phone interview, Dr. Glenn Mathew Baggao, CVMC medical center chief, said that the patient tagged as PH275 under the national database of the Department of Health is currently isolated at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) and so far is stable.
“For now, we have 39 persons-under-investigation (PUI) in Cagayan Valley region were tested negative of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19, Dr. Baggao confirmed.
Cagayan Gov. Manuel N. Mamba said that the patient arrived in Tuguegarao City on March 11 before the lockdown from Manila.
The 44-year old male patient was a resident of Caritan, Tuguegarao City and a government employee of the Bureau of Fire Protection assigned in Sta. Mesa town, according to Mamba.
The patient sought consultation at Divine Mercy Wellness Center for his symptoms on March 11, where
he was referred and admitted to CVMC on the same day. Prior to his arrival, the patient has displayed symptoms of coughing and difficulty of breathing.
Mamba urged everyone’s (Cagayanos) cooperation to help fight against the deadly virus.
“We could be assured of our safety for as long as we stay at home in order to fight this COVID-19. This is the time to reflect, to know what we need to do in our respective homes. Spend every 24 hours with our love ones inside our home. We will fight COVID-19 as we repair ourselves within our family.
Let us stay inside our houses and have quality time with them in this time. There will be no other way
than this to fight COVID-19,” Mamba said.
He also expressed gratitude to all the front liners, the officials down to the barangay officials for being today’s heroes in extending their services to the populace in this kind of situation.
Dr. Baggao appealed to the people, that everyone must stay at home! He said Cagayan residents could be spared from COVID-19 only if proper quarantine procedures are observed.
“To prevent spread of the virus, we advise those who travelled from the infected areas, be it locally or abroad, to practice home quarantine. Even those employees who went for official business in the infected areas are also required to observe home quarantine,”
Let us practice that cough etiquette by means of closing our mouth when we cough to avoid any transmission. Should we know of anybody who have the symptoms of this virus, immediately report this to the authorities,” Baggao added,
Contact tracing of the confirmed case is now currently being undertaken by a team from the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit and personnel from the City Health Office of Tuguegarao, where close contacts have been identified and are now being closely monitored report from the Department of Health – Cagayan Valley Center for Health Development.
The department urged the public to cooperate so that the DOH may be able to locate all persons that need to be traced for proper assessment.
The department, however, assured the public that all measures needed to combat the spread of this virus are being seriously undertaken. Strict infection and prevention protocols are being observed by the CVMC and its personnel while caring for the patient, leaving no room for infection to occur.
The DOH-CVCHD reiterated that the announcement comes at the time where speculations freely circulate from different platforms of the media causing not only panic but mass hysteria from the people.
The department added that any information surrounding the Coronavirus Disease should only be sourced out from the Department of Health.