ILOILO CITY –– Concern over the spread of the novel coronavirus or 2019-nCov outbreak has triggered the cancellation of classes and appeals from health authorities not to spread unverified information.
Classes were suspended involving more than 2,000 students in four schools near a training facility in the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan, where 11 Chinese tourists were placed under observation.
Kalibo Mayor Emerson Lachica issued an executive order on Wednesday indefinitely suspending classes at the Regional Science High School for Region VI, Saint Gabriel College, including its pre-school, elementary, junior and senior high school, the Barangay Old-Bachao Sur Elementary School, and the Starglow Center for Academics and Arts.
The schools are near the Gov. Corazon Legaspi-Cabagnot Memorial Training Center at Barangay Old Buswang, where 11 Chinese tourists, who were vacationing on Boracay Island, were brought for observation.
Lachica told the INQUIRER he ordered the suspension of classes after parents raised concerns over the proximity of training facility to the schools and after consulting with school and health officials.
He said classes would resume after the incubation period for suspected 2019-nCov infection is over or after the tourists leave the facility.
Health officials have said that the incubation period or the time when symptoms appear or are detected after the infection is up to 14 days.
The 11 Chinese tourists have not exhibited any of the symptoms of the 2019-nCov including severe acute respiratory illnesses.
In Iloilo City, health officials have appealed for sobriety over a 3-year-old Chinese boy who developed a fever after traveling from China.
The boy, who is vacationing with his parents here, has no more fever and has no travel history to Hubei province where Wuhan City, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus or 2019-nCov outbreak, is located.
The boy was referred to the Western Visayas Medical Center after seeking a medical consultation in a private hospital.
The boy and his family were brought to the WVMC from the private hospital in a taxi.
The taxi operator has issued a statement saying that, as a precautionary measure, it has placed the driver of the taxi unit under quarantine, and has also disinfected the taxi unit.
The 2019-nCov is spread through droplets from unprotected sneeze and cough and close contact with an infected person./lzb