CEBU CITY, Philippines — Despite the addition of one new confirmed case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Central Visayas, the total number of patients here that await to be cleared from the virus has dropped to 9 as of Holy Tuesday, April 7, 2020.
This developed as samples from six patients who previously tested positive for COVID-19 have returned negative from their repeat tests. This brings the total number of “laboratory negative” persons to 19.
Among those who are now laboratory negative for COVID-19 are Cebu City patients CV-12, a 45 -year-old woman; CV-22, a 64-year-old man; CV-23, a 68-year-old woman; CV-29, a 45-year-old man; and CV-31 who is 57 years old.
The sixth new laboratory negative patient is CV-32, a 31-year-old male from Mandaue City.
“The increasing number of cases that have cleared the virus from their system is good news. This has shown that although these patients are from the high-risk groups, timely testing and appropriate management can increase the fighting chance of those infected by COVID-19,” Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) Director Jaime Bernadas said.
No new death among the COVID-19 patients in the region was also recorded.
According to the April 7 bulletin of DOH-7, the subnational laboratory of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC SNL) released 78 test results as of 5 p.m. this Tuesday.
Only one of the results showed positive for COVID-19 while 77, including the six repeat tests, were negative.
The new COVID-19 patient, tagged as CV-36, is a 68-year-old man from Cebu City.
Cebu City, although it has the highest number of COVID-19 patients at 23, also has the highest number of patients that survived the disease with 12 patients tagged as laboratory negative.
Mandaue City, on the other hand, now has both of its two COVID-19 patients as laboratory negative. CV-06, the first case in the city, has been discharged last week.
The remaining active COVID-19 cases in Central Visayas as of press time are CV-05, CV-13, CV-15, CV-21, CV-26, and CV-36 of Cebu City; CV-24 and CV-24 from Lapu-Lapu City; and CV-33 from Cebu province. /rcg