Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 26) — The city of Puerto Princesa, Palawan reported its first case of COVID-19 on Sunday.
Puerto Princesa Mayor Lucilo Bayron made the announcement on Facebook, saying the patient was admitted to the provincial hospital on April 14 and died a week after.
The province’s first case is a 26 year-old Australian man who went to Puerto Princesa on March 5. He then went straight to another municipality of Palawan, according to DOH-MIMAROPA.
“Nakunan siya ng swab test bago siya pumanaw at naipadala ito sa RITM ngunit hindi kagad lumabas ang resulta at kagabi lang nalaman na siya’y positibo,” said the mayor.
[Translation: A swab test was done before the patient died and it was sent to the RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) but the result did not come out immediately, and it was only last night (that we knew the patient) was positive.]
Contact tracing is currently being done to determine who has interacted with the patient and also to contain the spread of the virus in the city, said Bayron.
The Philippines has 7,579 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Some 501 have died, while 862 have recovered from the disease.
He was admitted at a local health facility in Puerto Princesa on March 13 after experiencing fever, a symptom associated with the coronavirus. Specimen samples were taken from him upon admission, which were taken to RITM a day after.
He flew back to Australia on March 17 after his fever subsided.
On March 20, the result of his confirmatory test from RITM came out positive for COVID-19.
