A health official on Friday confirmed that community transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID) 2019 in Bohol has already happened.
“This is really now an example of a community transmission,” said Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) medical chief Dr. Mutya Macuno referring to the 89-year-old man from Calape town who tested positive for COVID-19 and had no travel history.
The patient died at the GCGMH on May 26 due to severe myocardial infarction secondary to community-acquired pneumonia and was determined to be infected with COVID-19 based on a test result released on Thursday.
Community-based transmission is declared when a person is diagnosed with the disease despite having no history of travel and exposure to a positive case, Macuno said in an interview over station dyRD’s “Inyong Alagad.”
According to Calape Mayor Nelson Yu, the patient was bedridden and was no longer going out of his house before he was rushed to the GCGMH on May 25.
“Ang pasyente, kadtong si lolo, dugay na ni siya na di tiggawas sa panimalay kay naay daghan sakit-sakit na, 89 year old na so usahay sige ra’g higda,” said Yu.
The patient’s close contacts were his 30-year-old live-in partner and 60-year-old son who were taking care of him.
Both persons and “four to five others” in the household who were all asymptomatic have been placed under quarantine, Yu added.
The mayor admitted that determining how the 89-year-old man contracted the disease is a “big challenge” for them considering that he was confined inside his home.
“Ang mga taw nakurat gahapon kay mismo ang mga taga barangay, mga silingan nila kay ang wife ana ra sa tindahan mo palit og mga pagkaon, usahay mo ari og market sa poblacion, pero tagsa ra pud kaayo kay gabantay man siya sa iyang bana,” he said.
The 89-year-old man was one of two new COVID-19 cases reported by the Department of Health 7 to local authorities on Thursday.
The other positive case is a woman who has been confined at the Ace Medical Center for 10 days due to difficulty of breathing, chest pain and other ailments, but has already “fully recovered,” according to the hospital’s administration.
Not much details have been released about the patient but Tagbilaran City Mayor Baba Yap confirmed that she is not an overseas Filipino worker nor a locally stranded individual and that she is a resident of Barangay Dao, Tagbilaran City.