Davao City: Out of 650 COVID-19 cases in Davao City as of Thursday, 104 or 16% have been classified under community transmission, or those whose exposure to a confirmed positive patient could no longer be established.
But health authorities in the Davao Region assured the public that it is still “manageable.”
In a virtual presser on Friday, Dr. Raquel Montejo, contact tracing team leader at the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao Region, said there are COVID-19 cases in the city who have exposure to unknown COVID-19 positive individuals in the community, particularly in areas classified high risk to very high risk such as Barangay 23-C, Mintal, Buhangin District, and Agdao District.
“These cases have exposure to unknown individuals in the community. These are the cases who we can no longer establish with whom they are epidemiologically linked to any positive cases, but they all came from areas where there is a local transmission, but we cannot just pinpoint who among the community infected them,” she said.
She cited, for instance, a sidewalk vendor in a densely populated Barangay 23-C contracted COVID-19 but could not determine as to how this patient got infected in the community.
Barangay 23-C was placed under a 14-day lockdown from July 4 to July 18, subject to extension if the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise. As of 4 p.m. Saturday, the city government has not released the status update of the barangay.
At the regional level, Montejo said that out of 878 cases recorded on Thursday, 709 have been investigated. Out of the 709, 212 cases had a history of travel in areas with local transmission, 358 cases have exposure to COVID-19 patients or suspects, 31 have been traced to the New Davao Matina Gallera derby, 104 cases with exposure to unknown individuals in the community, and four cases related to others events like birthday, wedding, graduation, etc.
Unlike community transmission, cases of local transmission have known exposure to COVID-19 positive cases, said Dr. Rachel Pasion, DOH-Davao’s data management officer.
“For local transmission, it means that the source and transmission can be established. I know the source of my infection,” she said.