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Batanes COVID-Free Again After Two Patients Recovered
Xave Gregorio (Philstar.com) – November 7, 2020 – 12:05 pm
MANILA, Philippines – Batanes province is COVID-19 free again after two patients with the highly infectious respiratory disease recovered, Gov. Marilou Cayco said Saturday.
“They have been released from the quarantine facilities. We are fine now, we are COVID-free again, ”Cayco said in Filipino during the Laging Handa briefing.
She said that more than 100 close contacts of the two patients were tested for COVID-19 and all tested negative.
Meanwhile, 95 locally stranded people and Filipinos returning abroad are still in various quarantine facilities in the province, Cayco said. He added that none of them show symptoms of COVID-19.
Batanes registered its first two cases of the new coronavirus in September and October after almost eight months of being free of the virus.
The first patient in the country’s northernmost province was a locally stranded individual returning to Batanes aboard an Air Force plane. The second patient was also on board the same plane.
Since the coronavirus outbreak began in the country, Batanes has been closed to tourists, unless they are willing to undergo a 14-day quarantine in the province first.
But Cayco said they are considering easing the restrictions depending on the situation in Manila and other provinces.
“If, for example, COVID-19 cases decrease in Manila and other provinces, then we can slowly open up here,” he said in Filipino.
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