By Dolly Yasa and Glazyl Y.Masculino
BACOLOD City – Chacha Magallanes-Tan, spokesperson of the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force confirmed Wednesday that an employee of the provincial capitol tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.
Tan said the employee did not set foot at the provincial capitol this week after contracting the virus from a relative.
The office where the employee is working will be closed for disinfection, she said.
Meanwhile, the province of Negros Occidental recorded its first COVID fatality.
Atty. Rayfrando Diaz II, provincial administrator said the fatality was a 77-year-old boat captain from San Carlos City.
He passed away at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) Monday, Diaz said.
According to the city government of San Carlos, the patient was rushed to San Carlos City hospital on July 20 after suffering from difficulty of breathing and body malaise.
Two days later, he was referred to CLMMRH here, where he died from complications while being treated at the Intensive Care Unit.
The patient worked as a ferry boat captain in one of the shipping lines operating between San Carlos City to Toledo City in Cebu, the city government in a statement said.
Diaz said the patient’s swab test results came out last Friday, indicating that he tested positive for COVID-19.
Persons with close contact with the patient especially his quarantined co-workers aboard the ferry and others in a government facility were swabbed for Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests by the Provincial Health Office.
Diaz said that about 30 health workers at the San Carlos City Hospital were also swabbed for RT-PCR testing.
The province has a total of 416 COVID-19 cases as of this writing.
