COVID-19 cases in Northern Samar went up after church concert —governor

The recent spike of COVID-19 cases in the province of Northern Samar was attributed to a church concert held in one of its municipalities, its governor said Saturday.

Interviewed at the Laging Handa briefing, Northern Samar Governor Edwin Ongchuan said the province had a peak of COVID-19 cases on June 10 with 123 active cases in one day in the municipality of Victoria, driving up the total active cases to 218.

Towns were placed under granular lockdowns, including the capital Catarman.

Ongchuan said their contact tracing efforts revealed the cases emerged following a church concert.

"May iba pong mga kababayan natin mula sa ibang bayan, dito po nagsipunta sa Victoria at sa kasamaang palad may naitala pong dalawang nasawi sa COVID," Ongchuan said.

(Some citizens from other towns went here to Victoria, and unfortunately two casualties were recorded due to COVID.)

Ongchuan said he already directed their mayors to postpone mass gatherings, particularly church gatherings.

On Friday, the Philippines reported 6,686 new infections, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 1,300,349.

Of this total number, 61,345 are active and 1,216,497 recovered, while 22,507 died. —KG, GMA News