Chinese woman is Philippines' third coronavirus case

MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN): A 60-year-old Chinese woman was declared as the third novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) case in the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday (Feb 5).

In a press conference, Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said the Chinese came from Wuhan and travelled to Cebu City via a flight from Hong Kong on Jan 20.

The DOH official also said she travelled to Bohol where she was later admitted to a hospital due to fever and “coryza.” According to DOH’s website, coryza means runny nose.

Samples were taken from the Chinese tourist on Jan 23 and Jan 24, Domingo said. On Jan 29 and 30, the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Australia and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City found the Jan 24 samples negative for 2019-nCov.

Thus, she was discharged from the hospital in Bohol. The Chinese tourist returned to China through a flight from Cebu on Jan 31.

But on Feb 3, DOH received information from RITM that the Jan 23 samples were positive for 2019-nCoV ARD.

DOH said more than 100 individuals are presently being monitored for suspected 2019-nCoV ARD in the country.

The government confirmed the nation’s first 2019-nCoV case on Jan 30 – a 38-year-old Chinese woman; and the second case on Feb 2 – her partner, a 44-year-old Chinese man. Both also came from Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus epidemic, and arrived in the Philippines on Jan 21. Both travelled to Cebu and Dumaguete before flying to Manila on Jan 25.

The Chinese man died on Feb 1 due to severe pneumonia. He was tagged as the first 2019-nCoV fatality in the Philippines and outside China. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network