BY ADRIAN STEWART CO and MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City – Western Visayas has its first confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – a male resident of Bacolod City with a travel history to London.
The Department of Health (DOH) central office confirmed the case yesterday afternoon. The patient was a 56-year-old male who returned to Bacolod on Feb. 29 yet.
The patient is now in stable condition at an undisclosed hospital in the city, according to Bacolod City’s Mayor Evelio Leonardia in a press conference.
“The patient is in complete isolation, and is recovering,” Leonardia said.
The patient was hospitalized on March 6. Specimens were taken from him and these were analyzed at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Metro Manila, according to City Health Office (CHO) chief Carmela Gensoli.
The CHO, with the help of the police, will immediately conduct intensive contract tracing, according to Leonardia.
As of yesterday, Bacolod City has 11 persons under investigation (PUI) for possible COVID-19.
The city is currently under a “general community quarantine.”
Leonardia appealed for calm even as he urged his constituents to better stay at home to stop the virus transmission.
In the entire Visayas, this was the third COVID-19 case, with the first in Negros Oriental (a councilor who later died from the virus), and the second in Mandaue City in Cebu (now recovering).
Overall, the Philippines now has 230 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with eight recoveries and 18 casualties, including a 65-year-old Filipino man from Quezon City who died on Tuesday but was only confirmed positive of the virus yesterday.
President Rodrigo Duterte has placed the entire island of Luzon under enhanced community quarantine, restricting people’s movement to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Several areas outside Luzon have also shut their borders.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), people can catch COVID-19 from others who have the virus.
The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person.
Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth, said WHO.
People can also catch COVID-19 if they breathe in droplets from a person with COVID-19 who coughs out or exhales droplets. This is why it is important to stay more than one meter (three feet) away from a person who is sick, it added.
The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea. These symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. Some people become infected but don’t develop any symptoms and don’t feel unwell.
WHO said most people (about 80 percent) recover from the disease without needing special treatment. Around one out of every sox people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing.
Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness.
Across the globe, COVID-19 has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly in China, since the outbreak began in Wuhan City in December last year.
Over 244,500 people have been infected, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 global tracker./PN
