BREAKING: Patients under investigation for nCoV now at 31

MANILA, Philippines — The number of patients under investigation (PUIs) for suspected infection of the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease has increased to 31, the Department of Health (DOH) announced on Friday.

“As of 12 noon today, we have two more patients under investigation in the last 24 hours, which brings the total to 31,” Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said in a press briefing.

The two new PUIs are an American and a Chinese who came from China, according to DOH epidemiology bureau head Dr. Ferchito Avelino.

He added they have shown signs of infection of the virus, including fever.

Few data are still known about the two since these are new cases, according to Domingo, but he said one of them is in Metro Manila and the other is in Western Visayas.

Of the 31 patients, 25 are still admitted in hospitals while five have been discharged but are still being monitored.

This number also includes the country’s first confirmed case of the virus infection—a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan in China’s Hubei province who is now admitted at San Lazaro Hospital in Manila—and another 29-year-old Chinese man from Yunnan who died at the same hospital due to pneumonia.

The latest figure brings the number of PUIs per region to the following: 19 in Metro Manila, four in Central Visayas, four in Western Visayas, and one each in Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao, and Davao Region.

On Thursday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said there are 29 patients being investigated on suspicion that they have contracted the virus, which had killed 213 people and inflicted 9,692 in China where it was first reported.

[EDV and ADBC]