South Cotabato posts 10 monkeypox cases

COTABATO CITY — Ten residents of five towns in South Cotabato and in its capital, Koronadal City, had tested positive for monkeypox, officials announced on Thursday.

Local executives and the physician Conrado M. Braña, Jr., chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office-South Cotabato, separately confirmed to reporters on Thursday morning that all ten patients are now in isolation facilities, under close watch by medical teams.

Mr. Braña and municipal officials reported that there is one monkeypox patient in Banga, one in Tantangan, one in Lake Sebu, two in Surallah and four in T’boli.

All five towns are close to the provincial capital, Koronadal City, where a villager had also tested positive for monkeypox.

“We have ten patients now. Everything is being done to prevent the spread of the disease to other areas in the province,” Mr. Braña said.

Gov. Reynaldo S. Tamayo, Jr., chairperson of the multi-sector South Cotabato Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the Department of Health 12 is helping them address the problem.

Tamayo said personnel of their Provincial Health Office are cooperating with Mr. Braña and his subordinates in preventing the spread of the disease in other parts of South Cotabato. — John Felix M. Unson