DOH: No encounter with family of Chinese man with novel virus in PH

People wear face masks as they ride an escalator at the Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. Face masks sold out and temperature checks at airports and train stations became the new norm as China strove Tuesday to control the outbreak of a new coronavirus that has reached four other countries and territories and threatens to spread further during the Lunar New Year travel rush. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) said the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) did not encounter the four family members of a Chinese man who tested positive for novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV in Hong Kong after they reportedly arrived in Manila on Wednesday.

Hongkong authorities reportedly said that the family of the patient flew to Manila via Cebu Pacific 5J111, which landed at 1:20 p.m. on January 21.

The man along with his family had reportedly traveled through a high-speed train from Wuhan in China, the epicenter of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

“No such nationals were encountered by the Bureau of Quarantine,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a text message to INQUIRER.net.

Health authorities here and abroad have intensified efforts to counter the spread of the virus, which had killed nine and affected 440 people in China. Similar cases were also reported in the United States, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

In the Philippines, DOH said it is awaiting test results from a laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, on the specimen it took from a five-year-old Chinese boy who arrived from Wuhan to Cebu City on January 12 to identify the strain of the coronavirus that infected him.

The result of the test is expected within 24 hours after the receipt of the specimen, according to DOH.

Edited by KGA