Bulacan doctor dies of COVID

BULACAN, Philippines — Another doctor has died of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Mariano Galicia of the municipal health office in Norzagaray is one of the two latest COVID-19 fatalities in Bulacan, Col. Lawrence Cajipe, provincial police director, said.

Cajipe said village watchman Dionisio David Silva of Barangay Poblacion, San Miguel is the other fatality.

The Bulacan provincial health office reported two more cases on Wednesday. The patients are a seven-month-old boy from Bocaue and a 49-year-old woman from Guiguinto.

The Department of Health (DOH)-Central Luzon office said Bulacan has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and rate of recovery in the region.

There are now 114 cases in the province. Twenty-one patients, or 18.10 percent of the  total cases have recovered.

COVID-free again

Meanwhile, Isabela is free of the virus again after its two remaining patients recovered yesterday.

Ildefonso Costales, head of the Southern Isabela Medical Center in Santiago City, said the patients are health workers who tested negative for the virus twice.

Costales said the health workers were exposed to a medical technologist who recovered last month.

The DOH said all the 10 COVID-19 patients in Isabela have recovered.

Cagayan Valley, which was declared COVID-free on April 21, recorded three cases yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 34.

Two nurses at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center, aged 53 and 35, tested positive for the virus, Glenn Matthew Baggao, CVMC head, said.

The third patient is a 25-year-old resident of Barangay Calitlitan in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya, who was found positive for the disease two days ago. He was confined at the Region 2 Trauma Hospital and Medical Center in Bayombong.

Mountain Province, Apayao and Kalinga still have no confirmed case.

In Zamboanga City, an inmate whose cellmate died of COVID-19 last week is the 10th confirmed case.

The inmate, 57, was confined at the Zamboanga City Medical Center COVID Center on Sunday.

Dulce Amor Miravite, city health office chief, said they now have 10 confirmed cases. Three have recovered and two died. – With Raymund Catindig, Ric Sapnu, Roel Pareño