DUMAGUETE CITY –– Employees of the hotel in Dumaguete City and the beach resort in Dauin, Negros Oriental, who may have come in contact with the Chinese national confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus, have been placed on home arrest pending the arrival of a team from the Department of Health who will evaluate their conditions.
Dr. Liland Bustamante-Estacion, chief of the integrated provincial health office, said the home arrest was being implemented by the owners of the said establishments upon the request of the government.
The owner of the hotel has asked Gov. Roel Degamo that the name of his establishment not be mentioned.
“But he is very cooperative” (in our investigation), said Degamo in a press conference on Friday.
The coronavirus patient, a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, arrived with her boyfriend in Cebu from Hong Kong on January 21.
She stayed overnight in Cebu and took a plane for Dumaguete the following day.
The woman stayed in a hotel in Dumaguete. The next day, they went to a beach resort in Dauin, some 14 kilometers south of Dumaguete, and again stayed there overnight.
Apo Island barangay captain Mario Pascobello said they were trying to determine whether the tourist visited Apo Island, which is frequented by about 250 Chinese tourists every day.
Apo Island is an internationally renowned dive site and is gaining popularity for its marine turtles, which tourists can swim freely with.
Pascobello said he was meeting with Dauin Mayor Galic Truita to determine if they needed to close Apo Island to visitors while the coronavirus scare grips the country.
Meanwhile, the Diocese of Dumaguete has reiterated the order of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines that discouraged communion by mouth and holding of hands during the singing of “Our Father” to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in churches.
The diocese has provided these guidelines as it also issued an “Oratio Imperata” or mandatory prayer for patients inflicted by nCoV and those attending to infected individuals.
The diocese likewise urged parish churches to regularly change the holy water in the fonts and to install a protective cloth on the grills of the confessionals./lzb