As COVID-19 cases emerge in towns, DOH-7 says tracing source of virus difficult

On Wednesday, the Capitol announced that 18 inmates from CPDRC have tested positive for the virus. | CDN FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — There will never be a clear-cut answer as to where and who got the coronavirus first as more areas in Cebu log their first positive cases.

Even contact tracing activities, the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) said, will not be able to pinpoint who among the recent contacts of a patient first contracted the virus.

At present, Cebu province has logged a total of 25 cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in its component towns and cities on top of the 18 inmates from the provincial jail who also tested positive or the virus

The recent additions to the cases in Cebu province were first COVID-19 patients in their towns such as the 17 year-old boy from Carcar City (April 27), 35-year-old man from Banatayan Island (April 28), 58-year-old kidney patient from Daanbanntayan (April 29) and the 31-year-old health care worker from Minglanilla (April 29).

READ: Gwen: COVID-19 breaches CPDRC

With this, DOH-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas, in a statement, reminded the public not to let their guards down just because their community presently has no diagnosed case of COVID-19.

“Let us not be too complacent just because we may have no diagnosed cases in our own communities. The infection and the virus itself could be hiding n our midst, undiagnosed, undetected,” Bernadas said.

The local government of Carcar City earlier said their first case, who was also battling a kidney disease, may have contracted the virus in the hospital because he resided in a hinterland barangay in the city.

This claim, however, was refuted by the administration of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, where the boy was admitted and eventually expired.

READ: COVID-19 claims Carcar City boy: Question remains on where he got the virus

In the case of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, however, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said she suspects that an employee at the jail’s administrative office may have caused the infection to breach the facility.

Garcia said the staff, who is from Barangay Sambag 2 in Cebu City which has COVID-19 cases, also tested positive for the infection.

Garcia earlier ordered for all Capitol employees, including jail officers and administration staff, to stop reporting for work if they reside in Cebu City barangays that have COVID-19 cases. Garcia, however, said this order was not strictly followed.

Since CPDRC has been locked down for over a month now and the jail has not had new inmates since August 2018 yet, Garcia said the outside contacts of the employees could be the only source of the infection in the penitentiary.

“We are trying to see [how it reached inside the jail] kay kay wa man tay dalaw, wa man tay pasa-pasa og pagkaon or supplies. Kadto na lang. I feel that is the weak point kay wa tuhoa ang akong order,” Garcia said.

(We are trying to see how the virus reached inside the jail because we do not have visiting privilege nor did we allow the sending of supplies for the inmates. That, I feel, is the weak point because they did not follow my order.)

Cebu City Jail, which sits right across CPDRC in Barangay Kalunasan, was first to record COVID-19 cases among their jail guards and inmates in the past week. /bmjo