Patients being tested for new coronavirus now at 382

MANILA, Philippines — The number of patients under investigation (PUIs) for the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) reached 382 as of Tuesday, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

This was an increase to the 314 PUIs reported as of Monday noon.

Information from the tracker of the DOH in its website showed that of the 382 PUIs, 111 have been discharged after testing negative of the virus in two consecutive examinations, a huge jump from the previous 48 who have been released from hospitals as of Monday. The DOH does not delist the PUIs who have already been discharged.

https://twitter.com/DOHgov/status/1227140464593125377

As many as 266 patients remain admitted, the DOH said.

Two other PUIs, one who tested positive for HIV but negative for the virus and died of pneumonia on Jan. 9, and another who had lung disease and also died of pneumonia and not of the virus on Feb. 6 are included in the tally.

The rest are the three who tested positive of the virus: the 44-year-old Chinese man who died on Feb. 1, his partner, a 38-year-old Chinese woman who was already discharged on Saturday, and the 60-year-old Chinese woman who already returned to China.

The novel coronavirus has already claimed the lives of 1,016 in China and infected over 43,000 worldwide since its discovery in December.

The World Health Organization delivered on Tuesday chemicals and reagents that can be used to test 1,500 patients for nCoV to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Edited by EDV