DOH : Deloitte PH employee is 4th coronavirus case; 5th case is from Cainta

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed Saturday that the fourth confirmed COVID-19 case is an employee in Taguig City while the fifth confirmed case is a resident of Cainta, Rizal.

During the press briefing at the DOH main office, Health Chief Francisco Duque III confirmed that a 48-year-old lawyer, who has a travel history from Japan, is an employee of the multinational consultancy firm Deloitte Philippines.

Health Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the fourth patient even had a meeting at their office at Taguig City.

“Dun sa kanyang binigay na impormasyon, nakapasok siya ng isang araw siya. Nagkaroon siya ng meeting kasama ang mga ka-opisina niya,” Vergeire told reporters during the press briefing.

(Based on the information he sent us, he actually went to work for one day. He even had a meeting with his officemates.)

Vergeire also confirmed that the patient, who stayed in Tokyo, Japan from Feb. 21 to Feb. 25, boarded a flight via TR 421 in Haneda Airport.

Duque also confirmed that the 5th patient is a 62-year-old Filipino and a resident of Cainta, Rizal and is staying at a house in Filinvest East Homes which is located in Rizal.

Cainta Mayor Johnielle Nieto assured the public that the fifth patient infected with COVID-19, is one of the local cases in the Philippines, and had no personal contact with his neighbors at Filinvest East Homes.

In a Facebook post, Nieto said they ramped up efforts to contain the coronavirus even if the patient did not stay for almost a week in the neighborhood.

“Nag ikot ang health team kasama ako kagabi para mamigay ng disinfectant, masks at sulat sa mga bahay na malapit dun,” he said.

(Our health team went there and disinfected the area, put up masks and gave letters to all houses near the patient’s residence.)

“Paniguro lang kahit na hindi naman talaga sila nagkaroon ng personal contact sa pasyente,” he added.

(Just a precaution even though he did not have personal contact with any of the people in the neighborhood.)

Philippine health officials said the contact tracing is still ongoing for the three new confirmed cases of the fatal disease.

Unprofessional

Duque called some institutions as “unprofessional” for failing to coordinate with the country’s health department on information about COVID-19 patients.

“Makikusap kayo [na huwag sabihin], Sasabihin namin (DOH) we respect, tapos maglalabas. (They will ask us not to disclose their involvement then we will say we respect them, then they will disclose it.) This is really very unprofessional on the part of these institutions,” he said.

The country’s top health official said Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City earlier appealed to the DOH that they should not mention that the fifth coronavirus disease case was treated in the hospital.

But minutes after the DOH press conference on Friday, the hospital management announced that they are taking care of the patient, who was later transferred to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City.

Vergeire said public stigma and fear will be avoided if there is direct communication and understanding between authorities and health officials.

Edited by MUF