BAGUIO CITY April 25 – Nine persons, including four frontliners in one of the country’s designated independent testing centers, the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), tested positive for the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a single day that brought the number of cases in Baguio and Benguet to 26.
Four new COVID-19 cases were recorded today in the city while one case was reported in the nearby capital town of La Trinidad, Benguet as COVID-19 cases in the two areas continue to skyrocket following the inclusion of both places under the further extended enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Mayor Benjamin Magalong said all are health workers at the BGHMC.
Two are doctors, one is a nurse and the other one is a hospital clerk.
They are from Woodsgate Subd. Camp 7, Sto. Tomas Proper and BGH Compound barangays.
All patients are confined at the BGHMC and are stable.
Magalong said apart from the four BGHMC workers, the city listed four more — two Overseas Filipino Workers both from USA and residents of Barangay Dominican and La Trinidad, Benguet; an employee of the Baguio Country Club and an eight-day old baby now at the Pines City Doctors Hospital.
The mayor said appropriate measures are being undertaken on medical interventions, contract tracing, quarantine and disinfection to contain the further transmission of the virus.
BGHMC Medical Chief Dr. Ricardo Ruñez said they have started all necessary measures to trace all contacts and are preparing their hospital staff for testing.
“We will start disinfecting wards, have advised to temporarily stop admissions and communicating with other hospitals for this matter. We will continue with the triage,” Ruñez told the mayor.
In La Trinidad, Benguet, Mayor Romeo K. Salda disclosed that the latest confirmed COVID-19 case in the municipality is a 79-year old male stroke patient who is from San Luis, Pugo, La Union who was earlier confined at the Baguio-based Pines City Doctors Hospital on February 12 to March 10, 2020
Salda claimed that from March 11-17, 2020, he was brought to the residence of his relatives in Tebteb, Balili, La Trinidad where he temporarily stayed before transferring to another residence of this relatives on March 17 to date.
He is now confined in a La Trinidad-based hospital undergoing close medical supervision due to his condition.
Baguio City and Benguet accounted for 26 of the 29 confirmed cases in the Cordillera where 7 of them are medical frontliners mostly working at the BGHMC.
By Dexter A. See