MANILA, Philippines — The Ninoy Aquino Stadium, which the government has converted into a quarantine facility for COVID-19 patients, sent home its first coronavirus survivor on Monday.
The patient is a resident of the City of Manila and the first one to be released from the repurposed facility.
The patient was released after testing negative for the new virus twice.
The historic Ninoy Aquino Stadium is among the buildings turned into COVID-19 quarantine facilities in Metro Manila.
The 112-bed quarantine site started accepting COVID-19 patients on April 8.
Other facilities that have been converted into isolation sites are the Philippine International Convention Center Forum Halls and World Trade Center in Pasay City, the ASEAN Convention Center in Clark, Pampanga, and the National Government Administrative Center and the Athletes’ Village in New Clark City, Capas, Tarlac.
To date, the Philippines has 6,599 confirmed cases of the infectious respiratory illness, including 654 recoveries and 437 deaths.
COVID-19 is a respiratory ailment caused by the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2, which outbreak started in China’s Wuhan City in Hubei province in late 2019.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Globally, the virus already infected more than 2,498,995 people and killed more than 171,330 as of April 21. On the other hand, over 657,890 people have recovered so far from the disease.