COTABATO CITY – One of the more than 700 public utility drivers in the city who have availed of the rapid test for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) went missing after having been tested positive of the virus, the Cotabato City Health Services Office (CCHO) said Wednesday.
“The driver has gone missing, while search and contact tracing has been going on,” Dr. Meyasser Patadon, CCHO chief, said.
Patadon said the city government has been conducting the Covid-19 antibody rapid test to detect the antibody of a novel coronavirus in serum/blood/plasma of a person.
He said the most vulnerable sectors in local transmission of infectious diseases are drivers of public utility vehicles, market vendors, and market workers “thus they were prioritized in the program of Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani”.
“We expected them to come out negative, however, one of them tested positive in the rapid test,” Patadon told reporters.
He was a 49-year-old jeepney driver who is a resident of Datu Piang, Maguindanao but driving a public transport vehicle in the city.
“We were told he went to his hometown,” Patadon said, adding that the city health workers found out he was no longer in his home in Barangay Rosary Heights 3 here.
Health front-liners visited him to inform him of the result, and to arrange swabbing and his quarantine.
The city health chief has appealed to the driver to submit himself to the swab test, observe 14-day quarantine, avoid close contact with his family members and other people.
If the confirmatory result turns positive, the individual will be isolated in the city’s Ligtas Covid Isolation Center in Barangay Rosary Heights 10.
Since Saturday, more than 700 PUJ and tricycle drivers have availed of the free testing. There are at least 2,000 public utility drivers in this city. -PNA
