Virus scare alarms regional health execs

Concern over the spread of the novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, outbreak has triggered cancellation of classes and appeals from health officials not to spread unverified information.The cancellation on Wednesday involved more than 2,000 students in four schools near a training facility in Kalibo, the capital town of Aklan province, where 11 Chinese tourists were placed under observation.

Kalibo Mayor Emerson Lachica issued an executive order indefinitely suspending classes at Regional Science High School, Saint Gabriel College, Barangay Old-Bachao Sur Elementary School and Starglow Center for Academics and Arts.

14-day incubation

Lachica said classes would resume after the incubation period for suspected nCoV infection was over or after the tourists had left the facility.Health officials have said that the incubation period, or the time when symptoms appear or are detected after infection, was up to 14 days.

The 11 Chinese tourists have not exhibited any of the symptoms of the nCoV, including severe acute respiratory illnesses.

In Iloilo City, health officials appealed for sobriety following reports that a 3-year-old Chinese boy had developed fever after traveling from China. The boy, who was vacationing with his parents in the city, had no more fever and had no travel history to Hubei province where Wuhan City, the epicenter of the corona virus outbreak, is located.

The boy was referred to Western Visayas Medical Center after he sought medical consultation in a private hospital.In Cebu province, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has ordered a 14-day quarantine for all passengers coming from China amid the nCoV scare.

Garcia identified two facilities owned by the provincial government and the Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas where the passengers would be quarantined.

Samal measure

In Davao del Norte province, the local government of the Island Garden City of Samal is set to ban the entry of tourists from China and other Asian countries to prevent the spread of the nCoV.

Samal is a major tourist destination in the Davao region, drawing in at least a million visitors in a year.

In Subic Bay Freeport, Wilma Eisma, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chair, said there was no need to implement a temporary ban on port calls of cruise ships despite an outbreak of nCoV in China. Earlier, a cruise ship carrying some 700 Chinese tourists had skipped Subic Bay following protests from residents in nearby Olongapo City.

“Banned or not they (cruise ships) cannot come [to Subic] because the Bureau of Immigration has already suspended the issuance of visa upon arrival,” Eisma said.

In Nueva Vizcaya province, a mother and her daughter, who arrived from a vacation in Hong Kong, had been quarantined after they showed symptoms associated with the nCov.

In Bataan province, Mariveles Mayor Jocelyn Castañeda dispelled reports that a worker had been refused entry to a factory at the Freeport Area of Bataan after manifesting symptoms of the nCoV.

Mariveles, an industrial town, has been swept by nCoV scare because of a large number of Chinese workers at the GN Power coal-fired power plant in Barangay Alas-asin there.Baguio quarantine

In Baguio City, health officials said three people were subjected to quarantine for possible nCoV infection although they had no history of travel to Wuhan and did not have any known contact with people who contracted the virus.

The DOH said one of the three arrived in Cordillera from China on Jan. 19. The other two were his roommates.—REPORTS FROM NESTOR P. BURGOS JR., ORLANDO B. DINOY, DALE G. ISRAEL, JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT, VILLAMOR VISAYA JR. AND GREG REFRACCION