COVID-19 patient burns quarantine facility

SAN MANUEL, Pangasinan – After escaping from a hospital where he was brought for treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19, an 85-year-old patient set on fire a room of a quarantine facility in this town on Sunday.

The patient, who is asymptomatic, reportedly warned the nurse on duty that he would burn the social hall of the facility if he would not be released.

Responding firefighters immediately controlled the blaze, which damaged a table and the glass windows.

Mayor Kenneth Perez told The STAR that the patient was taken to the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital in San Carlos City.

Perez lamented reports that the patient has been abandoned by his children who are based in Canada and Metro Manila.

The patient was initially brought to the Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) in Dagupan City after he tested positive for COVID on Aug. 30.

He escaped from the hospital on Sept. 1 and was transferred to a quarantine facility in this town after the R1MC refused to accomodate him again.