Bus passenger from Metro Manila shows COVID-19 symptoms upon arrival in Lucena

LUCENA CITY, Quezon - A male passenger on a bus that came from Metro Manila became a Person Under Investigation (PUI) after he showed COVID-19 symptoms upon arrival in Lucena City, Quezon on Saturday night.

The 44-year-old passenger, a resident of Lucena City, was aboard a Jam Liner.

The said bus which came from a bus station on Taft Avenue in Manila arrived at the Lucena City Grand Terminal at 10 p.m.

According to local health authorities, the passenger already had fever and was coughing during the trip.

He called his sibling in Lucena City so he could be fetched at the terminal.

The sibling then told city health officials who were at the bus terminal that a passenger on the bus set to arrive from Manila was sick.

Local authorities have been strictly monitoring the arrival of people in the province as part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

When the bus arrived at the terminal, city health officials who by then wore personal protective equipment boarded the vehicle to check on the sick passenger as well as his co-passengers.

They checked the body temperature of all passengers and took down the passengers' names, addresses and contact numbers.

Some of the passengers were headed for Marinduque and Bondoc Peninsula.

The city health officer said the co-passengers of the PUI will be classified as Persons Under Monitoring (PUM) and will be made to undergo home quarantine.

The male passenger who showed symptoms reportedly works for someone in Makati City who turned positive for COVID-19, but authorities are still verifying this information.

Meanwhile, traffic was heavy at 8 p.m. on Saturday night with vehicles from Metro Manila going to Quezon being checked one by one.

In Tiaong, Quezon, bus passengers' body temperatures were checked.

In Sariaya, Quezon, authorities were strictly monitoring vehicles coming from Batangas and entering Quezon and checking passengers for COVID-19 symptoms.

Police Colonel Audie Madrideo, provincial director of Quezon Province, said the checkpoints were put up to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

He appealed to the public to cooperate with authorities regarding the strict measures being implemented. —Peewee Bacuño/KG, GMA News