The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the region already rose to 30.
In an official announcement, the Department of Health XI revealed that four of the 30 COVID-19 patients have died from various complications. Another four have recovered and were already discharged from hospitals.
As of March 28, the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) have 20 COVID-19 positive patients while two positive patients have been housed at the Davao Region Medical Center (DRMC) in Tagum City. Overall, there are 22 COVID-19 confirmed cases being treated in the hospitals’ isolation facilities.
The DOH has not released any details on the new cases but has assured that they are conducting extensive contract tracing of all individuals who might have direct contact with the patients.
“DOH is coordinating with concerned agencies to expedite the contact tracing,” the announcement read.
As of March 28 also, there are already 11 mortalities recorded on persons under investigation (PUI). Of these 11 deaths, four tested negative and the other four were positive for the disease. The remaining three mortalities are still waiting for the confirmation results.
Dr. Ricardo Audan, SPMC chief of clinics and health emergency, said that they have 67 PUIs confined in their isolation facilities. He also said that the tests conducted on these 22 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed and validated by SPMC alone, without sending samples to the Research Institute for Tropical Medication (RITM).
The SPMC has now the capacity to do the autonomous testing without RITM revalidating these samples.
