Ambulance driver not COVID-19 fatality
HEALTH • 16:45 PM Fri Apr 10, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
MAGUINDANAO --- The ambulance driver of a state-run hospital in Upi, Maguindanao did not die on April 6 of corona-virus infection as erroneously reported by a radio station in Tacurong City.
Dr. Michael Macion, chief of the Datu Blah Sinsuat District Hospital, announced Friday that their hypertensive ambulance driver, who died in his sleep last week, tested negative to COVID-19 based on swab samples taken immediately after he passed away.
“There was really no truth to a report by a certain radio station, as reported by a reporter allegedly based somewhere in Maguindanao, that subject person died of coronavirus infection,” the physician said.
The Datu Blah District Hospital is located in the town proper of Upi in Maguindanao province.
Local officials were irked by the radio report purporting a COVID-19 death in Upi, something that sparked panic among the local Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities.