MANILA, Philippines — The province of Batanes is free from COVID-19 again after two patients with the highly infectious respiratory disease recovered, Gov. Marilou Cayco said Saturday.
“They’ve been released from quarantine facilities. We’re okay now, we’re COVID-free again,” Cayco said in Filipino during the Laging Handa briefing.
She said that over a hundred close contacts of the two patients were tested for COVID-19 and they all tested negative.
Meanwhile, 95 locally stranded individuals and returning overseas Filipinos are still in various quarantine facilities in the province, Cayco said. She added that none of them are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
Batanes recorded its first two cases of the new coronavirus in September and October after nearly eight months of being free from the virus.
The first patient in the northernmost province of the country was a locally stranded individual returning to Batanes onboard an Air Force plane. The second patient was also onboard the same aircraft.
Since the coronavirus outbreak began in the country, Batanes had been closed off to tourists, unless they are willing to undergo a 14-day quarantine in the province first.
But Cayco said they are considering loosening restrictions depending on the situation in Manila and other provinces.
“If, for example, COVID-19 cases ease in Manila and other provinces then we can slowly open up here,” she said in Filipino.