65-year-old man first coronavirus case in Ifugao

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Ifugao admits its first positive case of COVID-19 Saturday afternoon, April 25. 

“We received the result of the real-time chain polymerase detection test of one 65-year-old male from Poblacion East, Lamut, Ifugao which yielded a positive COVID-19 test result,” said Ifugao Governor Jerry Dalipog. 

According to Dalipog, the patient did not travel outside Lamut, the capital town on Ifugao but he has been confined repeatedly at the Panopdopan District Hospital for chronic heart problems and pneumonia. 

In his last confinement, he reportedly lasted a week in the hospital.

Dalipog said that the man was a friend of a suspected COVID-19 patient who recently died but apparently of a different cause. 

After the result from the Baguio General Hospital arrived this Saturday, the patient was returned to the Panopdopan District Hospital. 

The Department of Health Cordillera actually recorded two patients from Ifugao as positive of COVID-19 but the other patient was a nurse who is stationed in a hospital in Santiago City and so the case was later recorded there. 

“With this development, the Provincial Government is now imitating measures to address the situation,” Dalipog said. 

He said that the provincial task force suggested measures like contact tracing, identification of high-risk health workers and quarantining. Disinfection and limiting operations at the hospital will be undertaken. 

He also said that the planned repatriation of stranded residents has been indefinitely suspended until the situation will improve. 

With the case in Ifugao, only Apayao, Kalinga, and Mountain Province remain as the COVID-free provinces in the Cordillera.  – Rappler.com