By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – Mayor Rhumyla Nicor Mangilimutan of La Castellana, Negros Occidental said they noted inconsistencies in the narrative of a resident in the town who tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The patient, the second COVID-19 positive case in Negros Occidental, is a 43-year-old driver of a couple in Pavia, Iloilo.
The couple also tested positive for COVID-19.
Mangilimutan said the inconsistencies involve the time and places the patient had been to before going home to La Castellana.
“We are looking into it,” she said without giving details.
Health authorities are determining if he acquired the virus from his employers in Iloilo or elsewhere.
The patient arrived here via a RORO ship on March 14, 2020. He was fetched by his brother who lived in Barangay Mandalagan here and was brought to his parents’ house at Easthomes Subdivision in Barangay Estefania where he slept before leaving for La Castellana the next day.
He went on home quarantine from March 15 until March 29 and was asymptomatic then.
On April 5 to 6, he had fever and loose bowel movement (LBM).
On April 5, his employers in Iloilo tested positive and on April 8, he was informed about the condition of his employers.
The patient’s test result came out April 20, eight days after his swab samples were taken.
Mangilimutan ordered the lockdown of Barangay Nato where he resided with his wife and child who all tested negative.
He has been placed at a quarantine facility while he as well as his wife and child were subjected to another swab test.
Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, Negros Occidental provincial health officer, said the patient is no longer exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
He said the result of the latest rapid test was negative although the RT-PCR confirmatory results are still pending, Tumimbang said.
Nineteen persons who came in close contact with the driver have been subjected to tests also.
Meanwhile, the city government here sealed off three “ultra-risk” areas.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chair of the Bacolod City Inter-Agency Task Force Against COVID-19, said the three sites are places visited by the La Castellana patient.
Familiaran said residents of the sealed-off areas cannot go out while the city government will bring them their needs.
