BUKIDNON - Bukidnon province has recorded its first case of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), local authorities said Thursday.
A patient under investigation (PUI) in Barangay Lumbayao, Valencia City was confirmed Thursday to have contracted the disease.
The patient attended a cockfight derby at Matina Gallera in Davao City in March, Valencia City Mayor Azucena Huervas said in a statement.
In its case bulletin released Thursday afternoon, the provincial health office said that aside from the first confirmed case, Bukidnon has 121 persons under investigation, of whom 34 are isolated, and 4,841 under monitoring, of whom 1,411 are under quarantine.
The health office in the neighboring Davao region reported last Monday that 427 individuals were contact traced for having history of exposure at last month's cockfight derby in Davao City.
Forty-six of those hail from areas outside of Region XI. Bukidnon is part of Region 10.
According to the Davao Center for Health Development, 23 of the region's 80 confirmed cases, as of Monday evening, had exposure to the derby. Six of the 11 deaths at the time also involved persons who were exposed to the said event.
Davao region's tally of cases has risen to 86, with 13 deaths and and 40 recoveries, as of late Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, in response to the Valencia City's first infection of the disease, Huervas urged her constituents to be extra cautious and to continue staying at home as the locality remains under community quarantine.
The Valencia City Task Force Against COVID-19 is also conducting an extensive contact tracing or locating people who may have come in contact with the coronavirus carrier, she added.
Local residents are urged to wear masks in public and observe physical distancing, while minors and seniors are placed under a 24-hour curfew.
The Philippines has so far reported 4,076 COVID-19 infections, including 203 deaths and 124 recoveries.
-- Report from Angelo Andrade, ABS-CBN News
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