Returning resident is Batanes' 5th COVID-19 case

Batanes province on Monday recorded its fifth coronavirus disease case, which involves a returning resident who traveled from Project 6, Quezon City.

On Facebook, the Batanes provincial government said the COVID-19 patient is a 26-year-old man and a resident of Basco, Batanes. The patient, who has a sore throat, is currently staying at Batanes Resort.

The patient arrived in Batanes on March 20 via Philippine Airlines flight, the provincial government said.

Prior to his travel, Batanes government said the patient underwent swab testing on March 19 and his test result was only released on March 21.

"Nagsagawa na rin ang ating Health Cluster ng contact tracing sa lahat ng kanyang nakasalamuha lalo na ang mga nakasabay niya sa eroplano at kukuhanan ng specimen para sa RT-PCR testing sa lalong madaling panahon," read the official statement of Batanes government.

(Our Health Cluster is conducting contact tracing for all the people he interacted with, especially his fellow passengers, who will be immediately tested for COVID-19.)

It can be recalled that the first COVID-19 case in Batanes is a locally stranded individual, who arrived in the province in September 2020.

To date, Philippines has a total of 671,792 COVID-19 cases with 80,790 active cases, 577,850 recoveries, and 12,972 fatalities.—Consuelo Marquez/AOL, GMA News