TACLOBAN CITY- The mayor of Palo has confirmed the existence of a local community transmission of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) in her town.
As this developed, the Department of Health (DOH) said that the region has now 982 COVID-19 cases.
According to Mayor Frances Ann Petilla, among its three new cases, one of them, a 29-year old man, has no travel history or engaged with any locally stranded individuals (LSIs) or returning overseas workers.
But she said that the man could have get the infected from his 61-year old father who was earlier confirmed to have the dreaded virus.
Petilla said that they immediately conducted a contact tracing to ensure that the virus would not further spread.
“(The) patient has no travel history and no contact with any locally stranded individuals, returning overseas Filipino or returning resident. With this, I am confirming that Palo has now a local community transmission of COVID-19,” Petilla said on her Facebook post.
Thus, the town mayor asked her people to strictly observe all the health protocols.
“Always wear your mask and practice social distancing. Please avoid going out if it’s not important. We are following and implementing protocols and health measures that will prevent further spread of coronavirus,” Petilla said.
The regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) has yet to confirm on this claim of Petilla.
With three new cases, Palo has now 32 cases with 19 recoveries.
Meantime, the DOH said that to include the three cases of Palo, nine new cases were added to the region’s total COVID- 19 cases.
Aside from Palo, also posting their new COVID-19 cases were Baybay City with two cases and the towns of Palompon, Alangalang, Barugo and Abuyog with one each.
Except for one in Palo town, all the new cases of the region involved locally stranded individuals. (JOEY A. GABIETA, LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
