The province of Negros Oriental has recorded 10 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases as the numbers continued to rise over the past week.
This brought to 39 the total active Covid-19 cases as of this weekend, said Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Liland Estacion, chair of the committee on health of the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) in a press briefing here on Sunday.
She said they received from a testing facility in Cebu City on Saturday the latest swab test results, which include the 10 positives, along with four repeat infections, and 83 negatives.
The 10 latest Covid-19 patients are six locally stranded individuals (LSIs) from Mabinay, a mother and son from Sibulan, a returning overseas Filipino from Jimalalud, and an LSI from Canlaon City, Estacion said.
She said records from the Provincial Health Office show that from March to date, the province has listed a total of 91 Covid-19 positive cases, to include three deaths, 49 recoveries, and 39 active infections.
Meanwhile, there is still no local transmission of the coronavirus in the province, Estacion said.
However, massive contact tracing is now being done following a report that a family of four from Barangay Boloc-boloc, Sibulan, two of whom are among the new infections, had a history of travel to Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.
The family went to the other side of the island on July 1 to process papers for one of the children who was scheduled to leave abroad.
They returned within 24 hours but were not quarantined or isolated, something that Estacion said must be explained on Monday as concerned authorities/agencies are still digging deeper into the incident.
She said two of the family members, the mother and the son, were among the new positive cases while the father is now at a private hospital here and the other child had already left for the United States.
The mother is an allied health worker of the provincial government who is assigned in Sibulan, San Jose and Amlan towns, which are now the subject of massive contact tracing because the woman had visited these areas since their return from Bacolod City, Estacion said.
It was not immediately known whether a local lockdown shall be recommended in the subdivision where the family is residing but Estacion has assured that there will be an update by Monday. (PNA)