With one confirmed corona virus case in PH
GOVERNMENT CENTER, PALO, Leyte- The 36-year old American suspected to have novel corona virus (2019 nCov) confined in a government-run hospital based here is still closely monitored by health authorities.
This despite of a ‘negative’ result on the initial test sample taken from the patient, John Paul Roca, information officer of the Department of Health (DOH) said.
Meantime in Naval, Biliran, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go said the government should further strengthen its monitoring and preventive measures now that the country has a confirmed novel corona virus.
Go, who chairs the committee on health at the Senate, said that all entry points like airports and seaports should be guarded to ensure that no person suspected to have the virus could not enter the Philippines.
“Dapat bantay sarado lahat ng ports.Tutukan dapat ng gobyerno… (para) dapat di makahawa, di dapat di kumalat,” Go said during an interview here Thursday (Jan. 30).
The senator was in Naval to distribute financial assistance to all eight towns and the provincial government of Biliran hit by Typhoon “Ursula.”
The DOH has confirmed that a 38-year old Chinese national has the virus.
Roca said that based on the result obtained from their office from the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM), initial result conducted on the American national turned out to be negative, particularly on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), a kind of corona virus.
“The result was negative after the laboratory test performed for SARS-CoV. RITM will still run more tests for the possible strain of corona virus,” he said.
But as part of the protocol, another sample is to be conducted by the DOH and once it turned to be negative, the patient will be discharged from his confinement at the said hospital, based this city.
“We cannot just release the patient even though the initial test resulted to a negative. Another test will be conducted on him and if the result will out to be negative, he will then be discharged,” Roca said.
By then, the mandatory 14 days of observation set by the health department on suspected novel corona virus patients has been completed, he added.
The American national, said to be a professor based in Wuhan, China, was confined at the hospital on January 17 with the 14-days period to end on Sunday, Feb.2.
The second test to be conducted to the patient is expected to be released before Sunday. The second swab sample from the patient was scheduled Friday (Jan.31).
Roca also said that the patient is doing well and no sign of fever or cough.
Meantime, Roca said that they would ask from their central office a copy of the manifest flight of the 38-year old Chinese woman who was tested to be positive for purposes of determining if she happened to be on the same flight with passengers residing from any part of Eastern Visayas.
“And if ever there were passengers from the region who were also on board with the patient, then we will look after them and confined them in the hospital (as a precautionary measure),” he said.
The woman, who was also from Wuhan City, was said to have travelled to Cebu and Dumaguete cities.
