COVID-free areas in Luzon, Leyte record new cases

MANILA, Philippines — Two months after being declared free of the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19, Ilocos Sur recorded a new case on Monday.

Gov. Ryan Singson said a 33-year-old female nurse from Tagudin town tested positive for the virus.

Singson said the patient, who works in a private hospital in Candon City, stayed at the house of her relative in Taguig City a day before she returned to Tagudin on Sunday.

She remains confined at the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in San Fernando City, La Union.

Ilocos Sur was declared COVID-free when its lone patient, also from Tagudin, recovered on April 16.

In Apayao, Conner town was placed on lockdown until June 15 after it recorded its first case, also on Monday.

The patient, a 28-year-old female doctor, is confined at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center in Tuguegarao City.

A 28-year-old female nurse who works in Baguio City, tested positive for the virus in Binmaley, Pangasinan. She is the first confirmed case in the town.

Mayor Victorio Palangdan of Itogon, Benguet placed Sitios Sabkil, Tocmo, Labilab and Bakong, all in Barangay Loacan, on lockdown after the village recorded its second case.

A jail officer at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa  who tested positive for the virus on Friday is the first confirmed case in the town after it was declared COVID-free for one week.

The two patients are confined at the Benguet General Hospital.

In Baguio City, test results released yesterday showed that a 38-year-old male nurse at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center was found positive for COVID-19.

3 OFWs infected

Meanwhile, the three new cases recorded in Eastern Visayas are returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Leyte.

Among the patients are a 43-year-old male who arrived in Burauen town and a 32-year-old female in Baybay City.

A 35-year-old female OFW who arrived in Abuyog is the first confirmed case in the town.

Their test results were released yesterday.

The three OFWs are beneficiaries of the Balik Probinsya program.

11 fishermen test positive

Eleven fishermen in Negros Oriental tested positive for COVID-19, according to Liland Estacion, spokesperson for the local inter-agency task force on COVID-19.

Estacion said nine of the fishermen are residents of Negros Oriental while two are from Santander and Samboan towns in Cebu.

The fishermen, who arrived from Palawan on May 21, are all asymptomatic. They were  quarantined in Dumaguete City. Artemio Dumlao, Gilbert Bayoran, Miriam Desacada, Eva Visperas