New case niece of woman from Burauen town

TACLOBAN CITY-A 25-year old woman is the latest confirm coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) case of the region.
The new patient is the niece of the 58-year old woman from Burauen town, the first case of Leyte province, Dr. Minerva Molon, regional director of the Department of Health (DOH), said during a virtual press conference Friday afternoon.
Molon said that the woman, identified as Eastern Visayas COVID-19 patient number 7, has exhibited sore throat and cough on April 18.
Swab sample was taken from her on April 19 which was brought to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City with the positive result obtained last April 22.
She is currently confined at the municipal isolation unit for observation and management.
Molon said that unlike in the previous COVID-19 patients, the 25-year old woman was not brought at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC), the referral hospital for the ailment, as she did not have any preexisting health problem.
The aunt of the latest COVID-19 patient is currently confined at the EVRMC since March 23.
The DOH-8 regional director said that with Burauen now having two confirmed COVID-19 cases, there is now a community transmission of the ailment considering that they lived in the same house.
Molon again reiterated for the public to adopt to the ‘new normal’ brought by the virus by wearing face mask, observe social distancing, personal hygiene and staying at home.
“From the beginning we’ve been calling the public to stay at home. If we stay, we cannot infect others. And from there, we can stop the transmission and spread in early stage,” the DOH regional director said.
On Friday, the DOH sent the batch 12 samples comprising 133 specimens from the contact tracing in Tarangan and from other areas.
(JOEY A. GABIETA, ROEL T. AMAZONA, RONALD O. REYES)

TACLOBAN CITY-Close to P9 million was raised by personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Eastern Visayas as part of the organization’s assistance to help individuals who were affected by the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019( COVID-19).
This was disclosed by Police Regional Director Bernabe Barba during a virtual press conference on Friday who said that the money they have collected will be forwarded to their central headquarter in Camp Crame.
Barba said that the more than 9,000 personnel of the PNP in Eastern Visayas joined in the fund raising by giving a ‘portion’ of their salary.
Earlier, PNP chief General Archie Gamboa has called on all police personnel to help people who were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the poor, by launching a fund-raising he dubbed as ‘Team PNP Bayanihan Fund Challenge.’
“We have this fund raising, collected from a part of our salaries, to answer the call of our government to help our people,” Barba said.
He said that during their fund-raising activity, which started on April 14, they were able to collect more than P8.9 million from the various police offices and units in the region.
The collected amount was forwarded to their national headquarters on Thursday (April 23), the police regional director said.
Lieutenant Colonel Ma. Bella Rentuaya, police regional spokesperson, said the initiative is an offshoot of a fund-raising project launched by Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Archie Francisco Gamboa on April 14, 2020 dubbed as “Team PNP Bayanihan Fund Challenge.”
The PNP called on all its personnel, regardless of rank and position, to practice the spirit of volunteerism to assist in augmenting funds in support for the government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
The move is the PNP’s response to Presidente Rodrigo Duterte’s call for the entire Filipino nation to raise funds to support the campaign of the government and help those who are greatly affected by the COVID-19 crisis, particularly those belonging to the poorest of the poor families, according to PRO-Eastern Visayas in a statement.
The various offices and units of the PNP in the region are also doing their own share in food-giving to families and individuals hard-hit by the pandemic, dubbed as “Kapwa Ko, Sagot.”
Among those assisted by the police organization was the four orphaned siblings living in Barangay Camparanga of Pambujan town in Northern Samar.
The gesture, posted by the 2nd Northern Samar Provincial Mobile Force Company, on their Facebook, touched netizens that it generated more than 4,400 likes and 1,700 shares as of April 24.
Various individuals and groups have signified to help the children who live among themselves after their parents were killed in a hacking incident last year.
The children, with the oldest at 13 years old and the youngest only six years old, is being looked after by their aunt who have her own children and have no steady income of her own.(JOEY A. GABIETA/
RONALD O. REYES)