A COVID-19 positive Bacolod City government employee passed away at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital Tuesday morning, April 20.
The 62-year-old cashier from the City Treasurer’s Office was the seventh Bacolod government employee to succumb to COVID-19 since last year, City Administrator Em Ang, who is also executive director of the Bacolod Emergency Operations Center, said.
He is the 56th city government employee to be hit by virus this month, Ang said.
The cashier is also the 15th Bacolod COVID-19 fatality in April, Ang said, pointing out that the number of deaths this month are three times more than those for the entire March.
Ang stressed the need for everyone to take the necessary precautions against COVID-10 that appears to be more deadly now and spreading at a faster pace.
COVID-19 has killed 221 people in Bacolod City since March last year, she said.
She said the son of the cashier who is a nurse tested positive for COVID-19 on March 31 and was isolated, while his parents underwent RT-PCR tests that yielded negative results.
Perhaps the cashier was tested too early and yielded a false negative result because he later manifested COVID-19 symptoms, was hospitalized and died, Ang said.
They are saying that he was brought to the hospital too late, she added.
The cahier had not been to the Bacolod City Government Center for more than 14 days, the last time he reported to work was March 31, so there is no need to disinfect, Ang said.
The policy of the city government now is to test close contacts of COVID-19 positive persons after five days, Ang said.
If a test is conducted too early the virus may still be incubating and will yield a false negative result, she said.*