Mayon evacuee COVID-19 positive, says Albay LGU

An evacuee from the Mayon Volcano unrest has tested positive for COVID-19, Jessie Cruzat of GMA Regional TV Balitang Bicolandia reported Monday on “24 Oras.”

Authorities said the patient was from Barangay Matnog in Daraga town and was evacuated to Gabawan Elementary School.

The evacuee has been transferred to a separate infirmary. His 30 close contacts have been given RT-PCR tests and have been isolated.

“‘Yong confirmed case po natin was transferred na already sa Daraga infirmary and ‘yong mga close contacts naman po were isolated,” said Ryan Bonina of Albay Provincial Health Office.

Mayon Volcano is currently under Alert Level 3 due to its “intensified unrest” or magmatic unrest.

As of Monday, the number of evacuated residents from the affected towns in Albay had increased to more than 20,000.

Hundreds seek consultations

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said on Monday that over 600 residents affected by the Mayon Volcano unrest have sought medical consultations while staying at evacuation centers.

As of June 19, a total of 10,146 families or 38,961 people in 26 barangays have been affected by volcanic activities. Around 5,466 families or 18,892 people are at 28 evacuation centers, or 1,235 people are staying with their families.

According to the NDRRMC, the top ten leading causes for the 628 consultations led by the Department of Health (DOH) from June 12 to June 17 are:

• coughs and colds (96 cases)
• fever (88 cases)
• acute respiratory infection (75 cases)
• headache (60 cases)
• hypertension (33 cases)
• dizziness (16 cases)
• skin disease (15 cases)
• abdominal pain (14 cases)
• colds (13 cases)
• acute gastroenteritis (12 cases)

“Dumami na ngayon kasi siguro marami nang evacuation centers ang naikot ng DOH, nagkakaroon na kasi ng medical consultation e, bawat evacuation center,” said NDRRMC spokesperson Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV.

(The cases increased maybe because of the consultations the DOH conducted at the evacuation centers.)

Alejandro said the DOH was considering putting up isolation rooms in each evacuation center, to separate those with illnesses and help them recover.

Mayon Volcano is currently under Alert Level 3 due to its “intensified unrest” or magmatic unrest.

Asked to explain

Meanwhile, Governor Edcel Greco Lagman said the provincial government had asked the local chief executives of the towns of Santo Domingo and Guinobatan to explain why they evacuated over 2,000 families or around 8,000 individuals when the towns were outside the six-kilometer permanent danger zone.

“Of course, the logical conclusion would be decampment, ‘yan po ‘yong dapat mangyari because sabi ko nga in the first place dapat wala sila roon sa mga evacuation centers. Unless there are compelling reasons that they can provide us with to justify bakit nila ginawa ito,” said Lagman.

(The logical conclusion is decampment. As I said, they weren’t supposed to evacuate so they shouldn’t be there. Unless they can provide us with compelling reasons, justifying why they did that.)

GMA Integrated News reached out to the mayors for their respective comments but they have yet to respond as of posting time.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology earlier said no volcanic earthquakes were reported in Mayon's vicinity, but 265 rockfall events, very slow lava flow, and five pyroclastic density current events were recorded in the last 24 hours. — Sundy Locus/DVM, GMA News