The Department of Health is now looking at around 400 individuals who had exposure to the cockpit derby at New Davao Matina Gallera in Matina.
In a virtual press conference of DOH on April 2, Thursday, Dr. Cleo Fe Tabada, medical office of DOH- Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) said that around 12 people who had a history of travel to the cockpit were confirmed positive of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) including four who succumbed to the disease.
Tabada said they are currently conducting an intensive contact tracing to those who were exposed to the individuals who went to the cockpit. She said that they already traced some of the secondary contacts of people who have exposures to positive cases or possible Covid-19 patients.
She said these 400 individuals were not the exact number as of the moment since they are uncertain how many people were inside the cockpit.
“As far as we’ve seen the list, we’re not even sure if it was the exact list. There were about 400 people inside but this has been since the start on March 6 to 12. We’re just basing it on the list given to us. We’re not exactly sure if it’s complete but we’re looking into it. But for now, we’re looking for about 400 people,” she said.
She also admitted that most cases of Covid-19 in the region was also due to the exposure from the cockpit aside from the travel histories of people with Covid-19 from contaminated places.
She also said that there are already improvements in their contact tracing activities as they have talked to some people via the contact tracing team.
“We are roaming around everywhere to check and monitor and trace people with exposure to positive cases. We also pushed through and started to asses those previously established contacts and their secondary contacts,” she said.
As of the moment DOH has not yet recorded the total number of traced individuals since there are developments each day. She said they are almost complete with contacting these people during the cockfight even earlier in March.
The contamination inside the cockpit has also been the cause of the local transmission in the city.
“We already have recorded local transmission cases here because some of them have no travel history but they were exposed to a positive case who traveled to infected areas or is also exposed to a positive case,” she said.
She said that their team had already coordinated with New Davao Matina Gallera management for the exact number and coverage of people who attended the event. This is to help DOH locate those who have possible transmissions and help them control the spread of the virus.
They are also closely coordinating with the National Intelligence Coordination Agency (Nica) and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to trace the infected people.
She also said based on the reports of the City Health Office (CHO), disinfection has been done inside the cockpit to eliminate the virus.
Aside from the cockpit DOH-RESU is also looking at some wedding and graduation ceremonies as a means of a local transmission after confirmed Covid-19 patients went to these ceremonies. However, no further details were bared regarding these cases.
DOH urged the public to stay at their homes and take precautionary measures to help decrease the number of positive Covid-19 patients in the city.
