HEALTH

COTABATO CITY  – Seven new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been reported in the Bangsamoro region as of today, raising the number of virus carriers in the region to 38, officials said.

Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan, minister of health in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), told a news conference that the new cases are Locally Stranded Individuals (LSIs) who were sent back home to Lanao del Sur last June 6.

“The RT-PCR testing came out yesterday and 7 of them tested positive,” Dipatuan said in a press briefing here on Wednesday.

COTABATO CITY - Two more residents of Cotabato City have been tested positive of coronavirus, the Department of Health in the Soccsksargen region reported Tuesday.

In its June 9 situation report, the DOH said with the two new cases, the region now has 34 total confirmed patients.

The 33rd patient is a 34-year-old male and the 34th patient is a 41-year-old man whose history of travel is still under investigation. They are in stable condition and awaiting PH number.

Below is the DOH-Soccsksargen infographics.

COTABATO CITY -- Three more patients in the Soccsksargen region have been tested positive to coronavirus disease (COVID-19), raising the region's confirmed cases to 32 with one fatality.

In a situation report, DOH-12 said one of them is a 40-year-old female (30th patient) from Cotabato City who has travel history to Manila, raising the city's confirmed cases to 11. 

The woman, who is still awaiting PH number, has arrived in Cotabato City on June 6 and is in stable condition.

COTABATO CITY --- Lanao del Sur province has 11 new ambulances to complement domestic COVID-19 containment efforts, officials said Saturday.

Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. said the ambulances were procured by the office of the congressional representative in the first district of the province.

The office of Rep. Ansaruddin Adiong turned over the 11 ambulances to the provincial government last week.

Adiong, also presiding chairperson of the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council, said the 11 ambulances will boost their war on coronavirus.

COTABATO CITY --- The Basilan provincial government has provided safe haven to 18 wandering Badjaos it rescued in the Licomo-Zamboanga border last June 4, the office of Gov. Jim Salliman said Saturday.

The 18 Badjaos, among them children displaced by the COVID-19 quarantine, were immediately brought to the provincial government’s medical screening facility in Isabela City in Basilan. 

COTABATO CITY --- Officials launched Wednesday the city’s 40-bed COVID-19 isolation facility whose operation the city mayor’s office and the Department of Health-12 shall jointly oversee.

Aristides Tan, regional director of DOH-12, told reporters the facility was built according to specifications of the health department.

He said the DOH-12 is thankful to the Cotabato City government for embarking on the project that the office of Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi started setting up in April.

COTABATO CITY  – Health authorities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Regioon in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has ordered an investigation why a student who arrived from Cebu City managed to go home, tested positive of the virus and eventually infected her three siblings.

“The student should be quarantined, he should be isolated upon arrival, but he was allowed to return home,” BARMM Health chief Dr. Safrullah Dipatuan said, hinting it was a case of local transmission.

Three of the student’s siblings, aged 13, 14 and 18, have tested positive of COVID-19.

MAGUINDANAO --- Eleven students who have just returned to the province from Cebu tested positive to coronavirus. 

The students are now in a COVID-19 isolation facility inside the compound of the Maguindanao provincial hospital in Datu Hoffer town.

Physician Elizabeth Samama, chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office, confirmed Tuesday that the 11 students tested positive to COVID-19.

She said all 11 students were immediately confined in their isolation facility without elaborating.

COTABATO CITY - A 9-month old baby boy in the city has been tested positive of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Department of Health in the Soccsksargen region today said. 

Still awaiting for PH number, the baby is the 24th confirmed COVID-19 positive in the region.

The boy is in stable condition, according to the DOH situation report dated May 23.

He has history of exposure to the 23rd patient confirmed to be virus positive.