Davao City: Medical experts here are looking at a possible rise in number of COVID-19 cases with the movement of people from lockdown period, and the return to the provinces of the stranded and of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Guesting during the Kapihan sa DavNor last Wednesday, Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC) infectious disease specialist, Dr. Mitzie Lou Osabel and DRMC Laboratory Head, Dr. Alejandro Domingo were both warning of a possible upsurge of COVID-19 cases.
They both were referring to the provinces of Davao del Norte, Davao de Oro and Davao Oriental which all are served by DRMC in relation to handling cases of COVID-19. DRMC is based in the City of Tagum, Davao del Norte.
Dr. Osabel revealed of having told her staff that they still could not hope to take a rest as the transport sector is now back on track triggering mobility of people
“Mas delikado karon, kay especially kung mag open na ang transport sector, ang mga tao molihok na man jud so dili nato mapugngan. (It’s risky nowadays especially when the transport opens; people’s mobility can be left unhindered.),” she said.
“Because we are now moving, there really is a great chance,” she added as she projected COVID-19 positive cases in these three provinces to again rise from plateau due to of lifting of transport restrictions.
For his part, Dr. Domingo cited the Balik Probinsiya program of the national government as a trigger factor to push the number of COVID-19 cases higher.
“Each person will be having a history of travel from other areas nga daghan ug COVID (with high number of COVID cases) and aside from that they will be traveling as a group. Maski may social distancing, isang group pa rin sila, isang bus (Though in social distancing, they are still in one group, in one bus) so the chances of infection is still very high,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Osabel admitted of being alarmed when she learned that Davao Oriental registered 12 COVID-19 positive cases on May 29, spawned by arrivals of OFWs and return of residents through the Balik Probinsiya Program.
On the evening of May 29, the Provincial Task Force on COVID-19 of Davao Oriental announced 12 new positive cases of COVID-19 after two months of logging no positive case of such pandemic.
Of the 12, eight were OFWs who arrived in the province through sweeper flights from Manila to Davao City on May 26, while the four other individuals were from Maguindanao who also arrived in the province on the same day.
Davao Oriental registered one new COVID-19 positive case on June 03 involving an OFW who “arrived in the province on May 29, 2020 via sweeper flight through the Balik Probinsya Program of the national government” per report of the Provincial Task Force COVID-19.
Also on June 03, the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte registered new COVID-19 positive that was also on board the May 26 sweeper flight.
On the same day, the Province of Davao de Oro logged another COVID-19 positive case also involving an OFW who arrived in the province via the May 26, 2020 sweeper flights.
The same scheduled May 26 sweeper flight to Davao City also brought to Tagum City a new case of COVID-19 positive reported today (June 05), breaking the city’s one month and nine days zero record of COVID-19 positive.
The City Government of Tagum reported that its new COVID-19 positive case is a locally-stranded individual who came back through the Balik Probinsya Program.
During the same Kapihan edition, Dr. Osabel said the DRMC will set a schedule to use its Gen-Xpert machine to run COVID-19 tests of all Davao del Norte-returning OFWs whose swabs were previously submitted to Davao City-based Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) for COVID-19 testing.
With authority from the Department of Health (DOH), DRMC has started running since May 30 a COVID-19 confirmatory testing using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enabled-technology of its three units of Gen-Xpert machine. (PIA XI/ Jeanevive Duron-Abangan)