MANILA, Philippines — A patient who was being monitored for COVID-19 has died due to cardiovascular attack, and not of the deadly viral disease, the Department of Health (DOH) announced on Friday.
DOH Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the 71-year-old Filipino got confined in a hospital in La Union on February 11 after experiencing cough. He had a travel history from Taiwan from January 24 to January 31.
Vergeire said however that the man had already started exhibiting cough since January 20, even before his travel to Taiwan.
The patient later on tested negative for COVID-19. He expired on February 12.
“He does not have the virus. He was negative for nCoV (novel coronavirus). He has comorbidities. He was just classified as a patient under investigation (PUI) because he had a cough and he had travel history from Taiwan,” said the health official.
“Final diagnosis was acute myocardial infarction (the medical name for heart attack). He also has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” she added.
Apart from this, the man also had community-acquired pneumonia. Vergeire said doctors are also looking if he had a thoracic aortic aneurysm.
This is the third death of a PUI who tested negative for the virus in the country. The two others are the ones who tested positive for HIV and died of pneumonia, and another who had lung disease and also died of pneumonia.
COVID-19 is the name of the disease given by the World Health Organization to refer to the formerly novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which killed almost 1,500 people in China and infected over 64,000 as of Friday.