THREAT OF LOCAL TRANSMISSION

THREE more patients died in Pangasinan, raising the number of COVID-19 deaths in the whole province to 21 as of September 10, according to the monitoring conducted by the Provincial Health Office (PHO).

Meanwhile, 50 patients recovered against 48 newly confirmed prompting Dr. Anna de Guzman, provincial health officer, to ascribe locally stranded individuals (LSI) returning to the province the source of the recent sudden spike of COVID-19 cases in Pangasinan.

The first of three new COVID-19 fatalities was a 68-year-old man from Alaminos City who died September 7, a day after he was brought to the hospital because of his chronic kidney disease. The two others were a 24-year-old woman from Calasiao and a 55-year-old woman from Dagupan City who both died on September 10,

The fatality from Calasiao suffered chest pain and was confined in the hospital where he died. The fatality from Dagupan was a 55-year-old woman who was suffering from diarrhea when he was admitted to a h private hospital on September 9.

De Guzman, in a talk over a local radio station, said the LSIs who refused to self-isolate upon reaching their homes while awaiting the results of the RT-PCR tests they were subjected to by the PHO when they arrived in the Pangasinan border.

De Guzman said that in many instances, LSIs treated their welcoming relatives with food and drinks instead of heeding the advice of the PHO to self-isolate till they are confirmed to have tested negative. This was the reason for community transmission of COVID-19 in different places, she added.

Sometimes, the newly arrived LSIs were reported to have hosted drinking sessions among themselves, worse, drinking wine from the same glasses without regard to the strict health protocol prescribed by the Department of Health, De Guzman told the radio station.

She said the penchant of newly arriving residents to host parties and drinking sessions without observing the health protocols helped enhance community transmission of COVID-19.

She said that a number of LSIs presented fake negative RT-PCR results they obtained from unscrupulous sources in Manila, prompting Governor Amado Espino III to order all arriving LSIs to be tested regardless of RT-PCR results presented.

As of 6 pm on September 10, the number of active cases in Pangasinan was 76 while 376 patients recovered.

With 21 deaths, the number of confirmed cases totaled 473 (50 from Dagupan and 413 from other towns and cities).

Of the eight newly confirmed COVID-19 cases on September 10, the youngest was a three-year-old girl from Sta. Barbara and a nine-year-old boy from Dagupan City. (Leonardo Micua)

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