The Department of Health XI (DOH) already tracked 427 individuals who went to Matina Gallera, suspected to be the super-spreader in Davao Region, last month.
Of the total number, 139 are from Davao City, 127 from Davao del Sur, 90 from Davao Oriental, 19 from Davao del Norte, five from Davao de Oro, and one from Davao Occidental. The remaining 46 were individuals were from the other regions.
The office also recorded 23 confirmed COVID-19 patients who went to Matina Gallera, with six mortalities In the region, there are 1,937 total individuals who were already contact traced by the DOH, including the 427 individuals who had exposure in Matina Gallera.
However, Dr. Cleo Fe Tabada, DOH XI-Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) medical officer, admitted that they are far behind from the curve, as they are looking at about 9,000 to 10,000 individuals in the region who are suspected to have exposure to positive individuals.
“There’s a lot of things to do, especially in our contact tracing,” she said. “These people need to be traced so that they can be assessed immediately.”
She bared that the city already traced 1,010 individuals who can be classified as secondary contacts of positive COVID-19 patients.
Meanwhile, Davao del Norte has 73, Davao del Sur has 135, Davao Oriental with 124, Davao de Oro with 109, and Davao Occidental has one 1.
“Efforts are being done. I guess we are somewhat successful because we traced that much. But it is really a bit slow, considering we would like to reach that many people in a short time. In this case, we would be able to see the real picture,” she said.
Of the total 1,937 contact-traced individuals, 1,510 of them had close contacts with other COVID-19 positive patients but they are not related to the cockpit derby event. For now, health officials could not ascertain any positive cases from secondary contact.
She urged all local government units to help them in contacting possible COVID-19 cases in the region. “We need to find more people and widen our search.,” she said.
Tabada also urged the public to cooperate in the conduct of contact tracing.
