PUI in Palawan dies while waiting for COVID-19 test result

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY –– A person under investigation (PUI) in Palawan died while waiting for his test result for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Wednesday morning.

Richard Ligad, chief of the City Information Office (CIO), announced the death of the 37-year-old Filipino male in an aired live video on Facebook.

There was no record of the PUI in the official tracker of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) of the Department of Health (DOH) in Mimaropa issued at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Noel Orosco, head of the DOH-RESU, said the PUI was not part of the official tracker as they received the data late and was already beyond the “cut-off time of reporting.”

Doctor Melecio Dy, director of the government hospital, where the PUI was isolated, confirmed that the patient was admitted on March 16.

He was flagged as a PUI based on his travel history to Manila. His samples were taken at 11 a.m. on March 17.

Dy said the patient was initially reported as a PUI because of his travel history. But he also had another pre-existing serious health infection.

“He died because of severe respiratory distress, and his body was treated as a highly infectious disease,” Dy said.

Palawan remained free from COVID-19 as of 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to the DOH-RESU.

Edited by LZB