Female tourist from Wuhan becomes Philippines’ first confirmed case of novel coronavirus

The Philippines confirmed its first novel coronavirus case on Thursday, January 30. The confirmation was made by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III who also revealed that the infected patient was a tourist from China.

Duque said that the patient confirmed to be positive with novel coronavirus infection is a 38-year-old female tourist from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, ABS-CBN.com reported. The confirmation was only made after samples from the patient were laboratory tested in Australia.

The female patient arrived in Manila via Hong Kong on January 21, 2020, but only went to a hospital for a checkup on January 25 due to a mild cough. Duque added that the patient is now under observation while confined in a government hospital.

“The patient sought to consult and was admitted in one of the country’s government hospitals last Jan. 25 after experiencing mild cough,” the Philippines’ Health Secretary said. “She is currently asymptomatic… which means she has no fever, and no other signs and symptoms suggesting illness at this point.”

Duque assured the public that they have implemented steps to protect the health of the hospital staff assigned to the patient. “We are also implementing measures to protect the health staff providing care to this patient,” he said. Duque also assured that the Department of Health has taken all necessary precautionary measures to stop the virus’ spread.

“I assure the public that the DOH is on top of this evolving situation,” the Health chief said. “We were able to detect the first confirmed case because of our strong surveillance system, close coordination with the World Health Organization and other national agencies, and the utilization of DOH’s decision tool, or the evaluation assessment tool.”

Meanwhile, DOH Epidemiology Bureau director Chito Avelino revealed that the female patient from Wuhan visited the cities of Cebu and Dumaguete, located in the central part of the Philippines. The country’s health authorities are now in the process of “tracking people who may have been exposed to the patient.”

These include airline passengers seated close to the woman. “For the plane, we do the rules of 4 – that means, we need to identify four passengers in front, four passengers at the back, and four passengers on both sides [of the patient],” Avelino explained. “Then we contact these passengers and advise them accordingly.”

Health authorities will likewise investigate the places where the patient stayed to check on the people who had contact with her. “And from there, do the mandatory quarantine to observe them if ever they will manifest any signs and symptoms of respiratory infection,” Avelino added.

Aside from the confirmed case, there are 23 other patients still in hospital confinement while under investigation for the virus. Five have already been discharged but are still being monitored.

A Chinese man under investigation for possible coronavirus infection died of pneumonia on Wednesday at the San Lazaro Hospital. However, it was not confirmed if he carried the virus.