Vigan records first coronavirus case

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The World Heritage City of Vigan in Ilocos Cur has recorded its first COVID-19 case – a 30-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) from Barangay Pantay Daya received her positive test result on Tuesday, June 9.

Initially testing negative last month, the OFW had a slight fever and sore throat on June 7 when she has already returned home and was tested positive through the RT-PCR swab test.

Vigan Mayor Juan Carlo Medina placed her barangay and nearby barangays on lockdown Tuesday night.

Her long quarantine in Manila might have caused her to contract COVID-19. Arriving from Taiwan on April 15, she checked in at The Selah Garden Hotel in Pasay City where she was quarantined until May 25. She got a  real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on May 9 and the result was negative.

She arrived by bus to Vigan City with other OFWs on May 26 and went into home quarantine until June 1. She was asymptomatic throughout, Medina said.

On June 3, she visited several buildings around the plaza of Vigan and also had her prenatal checkup in one of the clinics in town. On June 7, upon experiencing flu symptoms, she went to the Ilocos Sur District Hospital in Magsingal town for testing and then to the City Health Office for preliminary treatment.

Upon the release of the positive test result, Medina said that he activated the city government’s contact tracing team to investigate the supermarkets and pawnshop she visited. The taxi and tricycle that she rode on, however, remained unidentified.

Ilocos Sur Governor Ryan Luis Singson included the contact tracing to Sinait, Cabugao, Narvacan, Sta Cruz, and Tagudin towns.

He also said that this is the third case of COVID-19 in the province. The previous two cases have already recovered, he said. – Rappler.com