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The Mati Incident Management Team has already identified close to a hundred close contacts of the two latest confirmed cases residing in Barangay Matiao.

MC-84 was diagnosed positive of Covid-19 on October 2. She has no history of travel outside Mati City and was admitted at the St. Camillus Hospital on September 20 with manifestation of cough and difficulty in breathing.

MC-85 has a travel history from Tagum last September 10. She belongs to the sector identified as high-risk due to her work. She was swabbed on September 30 and her positive result came out October 3.

Both are residents of Barangay Matiao and thus have raised alarm of the possibility of a clustering or community transmission already happening in the said barangay.

The Mati IMT headed by Dr. Ben Hur Catbagan readily met with the barangay officials of Matiao over the weekend and conducted ocular inspection on the residences of the two patients.

During the inspection, it was however discovered that the distance of the two patient’s houses is about one kilometer away. Dr. Catbagan said there is also no evidence that MC-84 and MC-85 had been in close contact.

For this, Dr. Catbagan said they have decided to forego of their initial plan to institute a purok lockdown where the two patients reside. Instead, he said, they have intensified their contact tracing on the two patients and have identified 40 close contacts of MC-84 and about 50 close contacts of MC-85.

Catbagan said they have already swabbed all of the close contacts and have quarantined them while waiting for the result of their swab test.

Catbagan assured the public that the IMT is on top of the situation. He said though that there is still a probability of imposing a zoning containment pending the result of the swab test results on the close contacts.

He advised the public to strictly observe the minimum health standards and as much as possible refrain from going outside their homes. The advisory is true to all Matinians and not just those residing in Barangay Matiao.

Catbagan said that he already ordered the barangay health emergency response teams in Matiao to monitor and treat all those who have manifestations of influenza-like Illness and for possible screening if symptoms persist for more than five days. (CIO MATI)