May 23, 2020
ZAMBOANGA CITY – A barangay
front-liner was tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19),
bringing to a total of 142 Covid-19 cases here.
Mayor
Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, chairperson of the local Inter-Agency Task
Force on Covid-19, said Saturday the new additional case is a 34-year-old
female and forms part of the 44 people from Barangay Zone I earlier subjected
to a random rapid diagnostic test.
Salazar
said the result of the latest geneexpert test by the ZCMC on the patient was
released late Friday.
Salazar
said the patient, a barangay worker, is asymptomatic and has been transferred
to the government isolation facility in Barangay Cabatangan.
The
mayor said that contact tracing is ongoing to determine who came into close
contact with the female patient.
Meanwhile,
the residents of Barangay Mercedes are apprehensive after they learned that the
latest positive case is a resident of a resettlement site in their village.
Mercedes
Barangay chairperson Arthur Alejandro said the patient is a health worker of
Barangay Zone II although she is a resident of the village.
Barangay
Zone II Barangay chairperson Nonito Aranas confirmed the patient is a worker at
the health center in his village, which also caters to residents of Barangay
Zone I.
Aranas
said the health worker had even conducted immunization drive in Barangay Zone I
after she had undergone a rapid test together with 43 other persons.
Alejandro
said the resettlement area where she lives has been placed on lockdown to pave
the way for the contact tracing.
Alejandro
appealed to the neighbors of the patient to refrain from discriminating against
her family.
“We
should extend our help in this time of crisis,” he added. (PNA)
