PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Four persons with COVID-19 symptoms in the city had tested negative for the virus but the number of persons under investigation (PUI) had climbed to 58.
Richard Ligad, city information chief, said on Monday (March 23) that the city health office that 43 of the PUI were city residents, nine were from municipalities and three were foreign nationals.
Three PUI, all local residents, are to be discharged after testing negative for COVID -19.
A PUI, a 37-year-old man, died but not of COVID-19 but of “severe respiratory distress,” according to city officials. He was cremated just the same, a protocol for dead virus carriers.
The number of persons under monitoring, or those without symptoms but could have had contact with the virus that causes COVID-19 through travel or encounters with carriers, had reached 512, including those found through contact tracing for a COVID-19 carrier.
But Ligad said those who have had direct contact with the carrier are now in good shape and showed no symptoms. The PUM remained on quarantine, though.