Two more COVID-19 deaths reported in CdO as establishments prepare to open

Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental—Two more COVID-19 deaths were reported this week as malls, restaurants, and other essential firms start to open on Friday, May 8, 2020.

Dr. Bernard Julius Rocha, medical specialist at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC), said a COVID-19 patient, a 61-year-old resident of Barangay Carmen here, died on Wednesday morning, May 6, 2020, at the hospital.

Rocha said the second death was that of a 21-year-old resident from Barangay Lumbia, who also died at the hospital at around 12:50 am on Wednesday.

This brings the number of total COVID-19 deaths to seven, including the 18-year-old resident from Barangay Bulua, who died at a hospital in Davao City, and the 69-year-old patient who died in Sitio Pinikitan, Barangay Camaman-an last April 23.

Health authorities here are on a frantic search to look for the source of the virus that caused these deaths.

This as malls, restaurants, and essential establishments will open slowly to the public to jumpstart the local economy.

Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno signed the order to allow opening these establishments last May 3, following the provisions on the Omnibus Guidelines on the Implementation of the Community Quarantine in the Philippines.

Health authorities here are combining massive contact tracing and swab testing to look for those infected with the COVID-19.

Dr. Joselito Retuya, chief epidemiologist at the Cagayan de Oro Health Office, said they were able to track two relatives of the 69-year-old patient from Pinikitan.

Retuya said the two relatives have been tested positive of the coronavirus and are now confined at the NMMC.

He said they have already searched 2,530 houses in Pinikitan and Barangay Lumbia, the areas where the recent COVID-19 patients resided. /bmjo