Rapid testing in Cabanatuan City. Photo courtesy of CITO.
CABANATUAN CITY – The coronavirus disease has inflicted a family as Nueva Ecija reported an “unprecedented” surge in cases over the weekend.
The sudden increase prompted the city inter-agency task force to put on temporary lockdown Barangay Magsaysay Norte and Sangitan Public Market, a primary vegetable trading center, starting Tuesday, July 14, said the city information and tourism office (CITO).
Among the cases logged on Sunday were Patients 97and 98 who are brothers aged 17 and 18 years, and sons of husband and wife Patient 88, 41-years-old and Patient 87, 39-years-old from the posh village of Kap. Pepe Subd., Barangay Kap. Pepe here, according to reports from the Nueva Ecija inter-agency task force.
The couple was confirmed Covid-19 positive on July 8 and placed under strict home quarantine after undergoing a test at the Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Research and Medical Center on July 6.
The siblings are now admitted at the said hospital, the NE-IATF said.
More the addition in the list are Patients 102, an 18-year-old female; 103, a 72-year-old female retired teacher, and 104, a 42-year-old woman, all of Kap. Pepe. Patient 102 is a niece, Patient 103 is mother while Patient 104 is sister-n-law of Patient 85, an employee of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.who stayed in this city from March 16, but was found infected with COVID-19 on June 7, reports said.
In the village of Magsaysay Norte here, Patient 90, a vendor at Sangitan Public Market who was confirmed infected last week has three immediate relatives in the list: her two sons — 15-year-old Patient 99, and 16-year-old Patient 101, 16-year-old, and her 29-year–old daughter Patient 100.
Also included in the list of new cases were Patient 93, 46-year-old, female vendor from Barangay San Pedroand Patient 94, a 55-year-old dressmaker of Barangay San Isidro, both of Santa Rosa town; Patient 95, a 27-year-old male IT technician from Bitas here with history of travel to Bataan, and Patient 96, a 37-year-old businessman from Villa Ofelia Subd. this city.
Of the 104 reported cases in Nueva Ecija, 68 have so far recovered and four have died, the IATF report showed.
The NE–IATF, headed by Gov. Aurelio Umali, reiterates call to the public to continue practicing health standards such as wearing of face masks, use of disinfectant, and social distancing.
The city government led by Mayor Myca Elizabeth Vergara, meanwhile, conducted rapid testing on vendors as well as market and barangay officials who had contact with the patients, the CITO said.
