GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 03 July) – The city’s second recovered coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patient was finally discharged on Thursday after over a month in hospital isolation and treatment.
Dr. Ryan Aplicador, chief of the Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Hospital (DJPRH), said Friday Covid-19 survivor Joseph Christian Quiñones was cleared for release around noon after being considered to have fully recovered from the disease.
He said the 22-year-old Quiñones tested negative last week in his third repeat Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test and was declared as recovered by the Department of Health (DOH)-Region 12 last Monday, June 29.
“This (accomplishment) was a joint effort of our entire medical staff,” said Aplicador, who also manages the Covid-19 Center of the local government-run DJPRH.
DOH-12 records showed that the recovered patient was among the locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) who returned home from Cebu last May 31 aboard a Cebu Pacific Air “sweeper” flight arranged by the provincial government of South Cotabato.
Quiñones, who was among the students from the area who were stranded in Cebu due to the enhanced community quarantine, was confirmed positive for Covid-19 on June 5.
Five other passengers of the same flight, one of them a 22-year-old female LSI from the city, had tested positive of the disease. Two were from South Cotabato and one each from Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani.
Quiñones was the second confirmed Covid-19 patient in the city that has recovered and the first-ever managed by the DJPRH’s Covid-19 Center.
A video footage released by the city government on Thursday night showed hospital personnel in jubilation upon the patient’s discharge from the facility.
Doctors, nurses and other staff members rendered a short thanksgiving program for Quiñones, who was later brought home by an ambulance of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
Aplicador said the City Health Office (CHO) earlier prepared and assessed the latter’s home for the required quarantine upon release.
Based on the DOH protocol, Quiñones will remain under close observation in a separate room for at least two weeks. (MindaNews)