Governor asks Bataan residents to keep diaries for efficient contact tracing

PAMPANGA, Philippines – The governor of Bataan asked the people of his province to keep diaries and write down every day details of what they did, places they went, and the names of the people they had contact with.

Governor Albert Garcia urged everyone to do this, especialy for those allowed under the guidelines of Enhanced Community Quaratine to go out of their residences.

The governor said these invididual journals will help health workers in contact-tracing and aid the government’s effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease. 

Garcia made the same appeal to persons under monitoring (PUM) and persons under investigation (PUI) for COVID-19.

“Sa pamamagitan nang pagtatago ng record o diary na ito, mas maiibsan ang bigat ng gawain ng mga health workers at frontliners na naatasang magsaliksik sa mga kaso ng COVID-19 patients sa Bataan habang hinihintay natin ang pagdating ng mga test kits galing sa Department of Health sa Maynila,” he said in his Facebook page.

(Keeping a record or diary, will be a great help for health workers and frontliners who are assigned to interview COVID-19 patients in Bataan while they wait arrival of test kits from the DOH in Manila.)

The governor said even those who stay home should also make a list of persons entering their residences, like delivery and service personnel.

As of 1 pm on Friday, April 3, there were 17 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bataan.

Garcia said another coronavirus-positive patient – a 62-year-old woman – died on Thursday, April 2. She was confined at the Baypointe Hospital in Subic Bay Freeport Zone since March 24.

The first COVID-19 patient that died in Bataan was a 57-year-old man from Balanga City who was initially classified as a PUI. The test confirming he was coronavirus-positive was released after he died.

The governor said the 3 latest COVID-19 cases in the province include a 56-year-old mother and her 23-year-old son in Limay town; and a 72-year-old man from Orion town.

He said that of the 17 confirmed coronavirus infected persons, 3 have already recovered from the viral disease and are currently undergoing mandatory 14-day post-admission quarantine.

Garcia said, as of 1 pm on April 3, there are 116 moderate to severe PUI, 771 mild PUI, and 4,073 PUM in the province.

The youngest confirmed coronavirus patient in Bataan is a 13-year-old male from Balanga City who was initially admitted to the hospital on March 25 due to appendicitis. He was later tested positive for COVID-19. – Rappler.com