Swab testing of the close contacts of Talisay City’s COVID-19 patient No. 2 |Photo courtesy: Samsam Gullas
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The contact tracing swab results of Talisay City’s fourth coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient have returned negative.
At least 15 out of 16 samples have returned negative of the virus much to the delight of Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas in his Facebook post.
Patient Number 4 (PT4) is a resident of Upper Caduldulan, Barangay Lawaan III, Talisay and currently admitted at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
The area where the patient lived and the family and contacts have been placed under isolation.
Read more: Talisay City now has 18 COVID cases
The city is waiting for the 16th swab result to finally clear the sitio and release them from temporary lockdown as well as release the isolated individuals back to their homes.
“Hopefully padayon ang good news. If the 16th person na gicontact trace will come out negative, then we can close the case on PT4. (Hopefully, the good news will continue. If the 16th person in the contact tracing will come out negative, then we can close the case on PT4),” said the mayor.
Even if the case of PT4 would be closed, Gullas said the city would still monitor Upper Caduldulan closely just in case an undetected case would suddenly rise.
The sitio will be monitored for any influenza-like illnesses and any resident who manifests colds, coughs, and fever will be swabbed immediately.
The city is also waiting for more contact tracing results from the molecular laboratories particularly that of Patients 5 to 18, or at least 13 sets of contact tracing with no results.
The mayor urged the residents to pray that none of these samples would prove positive of the virus and rule out the possibility of community transmission in any of the sitios or barangays in the city. /dbs