American nat’l still being watched for nCoV in Tacloban hospital

TACLOBAN CITY –– The 36-year-old American national, who is being monitored by health authorities for possible novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), remains confined in a government-run hospital here.

John Paul Roca, information officer of the Department of Health in Eastern Visayas (DOH-8) said based on the result obtained from the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM), the American national is negative, particularly for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a kind of coronavirus.

“The result was negative after the laboratory test performed for SARS-CoV. However, RITM will still run more tests to identify the possible strain of the coronavirus,” he said.

As part of the protocol, another sample is to be conducted by the DOH and once it turns to be negative, the patient will be discharged from the said hospital.

“We cannot just release the patient even though the initial test turned out to be negative. Another test will be conducted on him, and if the result will be negative, he will then be discharged,” Roca said.

By then, the mandatory 14 days of observation set by the health department on suspected novel coronavirus patients has been completed, he added.

The American national, a professor based in Wuhan, China, was confined at the hospital on January 17./lzb