Twenty five nuns and nine staff members of the Carmelite Monastery and Convent located in Jereos St., Lopez Jaena Norte in Iloilo City’s La Paz district tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19.

According to Iloilo City COVID-19 Team spokesperson Jeck Conlu, a total of 45 monastery residents underwent swabbing after an index case who is a nun tested positive for the virus.

Of the infected residents, six are symptomatic including the index case.

The first case in the monastery underwent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on Thursday, July 22, after experiencing signs and symptoms. The result which showed she was positive for the infection was released the next day.

All close contacts were swabbed on Saturday, July 24, wherein 33 yielded positive results.

As of this writing, they are all isolated in the said facility that was immediately placed on lockdown.

Conlu said they are closely monitoring the situation of the cases while contact tracing are ongoing.

The 33 positive cases in the monastery were among the 104 confirmed cases logged by the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) on Saturday. (Glenda Tayona)/WDJ