Coronavirus patient in CdO hospital “improving”

THE 54-year old coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) in Cagayan de Oro City is “improving,” according to Chief of Hospital Jose Chan. “He’s improving… We’re treating him as a case of pneumonia… but pneumonia of COVID-19 will be longer, three to six weeks,” Mr. Chan said in a media briefing streamed on the city government’s social media page. The male patient, the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Mindanao, has no recent travel abroad but previously worked in Pasig City, where there are nine confirmed cases as of March 11. He first showed symptoms of the disease in late February and was first admitted to a hospital in Iligan City. He was transferred to the NMMC on March 7. Department of Health-Northern Mindanao Regional Director Adriano P. Subaan said contact tracing is underway. “The DoH is conducting contact tracing and heightened surveillance through the barangay health emergency response teams… hospital, local disaster risk reduction and management councils, and the rest of the government is ready to respond,” Mr. Suba-an said in the same briefing. He added that they will be implementing new or other protocols based on directives from the national agencies. Mayor Oscar S. Moreno, for his part, called for calm as he stressed that the city and other local governments in the region have been actively taking steps to address the coronavirus threat. “We have actually been doing the work to ensure the prevention, preparation, etc. since early January… Every morning we do briefings (on the COVID-19), we know that this is not an ordinary time… things have changed (with the confirmed case in the region) and we have to respond. We’re confident we can overcome this.”