DAVAO CITY – The city government of Quezon City and health authorities are investigating the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak inside Religious of Virgin Mary convent in Cubao, where 114 individuals contracted the coronavirus, prompting health authorities to place the convent under a special concern lockdown (SCL) since Sept. 14.
The health officials revealed 64 nuns and 50 of their staff of lay partners, health aides, caregivers, a nurse, and drivers of the congregation located in Cubao yielded positive swab test results.
Dr. Rolando Cruz, chief of the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU), said his team is conducting intensive contact tracing to control the transmission. Possible close contacts from outside the facility will be identified, he added.
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte has directed the CESU to list all closed-setting facilities in the city to review their compliance with health protocols.
Quezon City’s Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) said Wednesday that 22 of those infected are asymptomatic, 86 experiencing mild symptoms, four are moderate, and two are severe and currently in the intensive care unit.
No one among the nuns have been vaccinated against Covid-19 after they canceled their vaccination schedule, the CESU said. The staff, however, have been fully vaccinated.
Upon learning about the outbreak, the city carried out massive contact tracing to contain the further spread of the disease.
The city government learned about the situation only after the cases have been recorded in the city’s surveillance data as reported by a testing laboratory, CESU chief Dr. Rolando Cruz said.
The city government of Quezon also revealed on Wednesday that some 22 individuals from another religious institution, the Convent of the Holy Spirit, also tested positive for Covid-19, and had been placed under SCL.
The convent has 90 residents.
The CESU is also conducting ongoing Investigations on the possible cause of the infections.
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