DOH: Patients checked for nCoV reach 178 in PH

The facade of the DOH main office in Manila. INQUIRER.net file photo / Consuelo Marquez

MANILA, Philippines — The number of patients under investigation (PUIs) for the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) reached 178 as of Thursday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

Of these PUIs, 48 have already tested negative for the virus although only 16 have been discharged but are still being strictly monitored. Ten of them have refused to be admitted to hospitals, according to Duque.

This was an increase in the previously 133 number of PUIs as of 12 noon Wednesday, including 115 who were admitted in hospitals and 16 that have already been discharged but are still being monitored after testing negative for the virus. Two other PUIs have died, including one who tested negative to the virus and succumbed to other complications.

Duque announced this a day after the DOH confirmed the country’s third case of nCoV—a 60-year-old Chinese woman who arrived in Cebu City from Wuhan in China via Hong Kong and headed directly to Bohol on Jan. 20. She already returned to China on January 31 after initial tests showed she was negative for the virus.

The Health Secretary also appealed to PUIs to cooperate amid the refusal of some patients to be tested in hospitals.

“Maki-sama naman kayo. ‘Yung cooperation ninyo ay napakahalaga (Please cooperate. Your cooperation is very important),” he stressed.

“Malaki po ang papel na dapat gampanan ng ating symptomatic patients or PUIs at kailangan po gawin natinang kanya-kanyang papel or dapat magampanan para ang banta ng nCoV ARD ay mababang mababa or mawalan ng tuluyan,” he added.

(Our symptomatic patients or PUIs play a key role in this and we should each play our parts so that the threat of the nCoV ARD will be low or eliminated completely.)

Duque said the DOH has been coordinating with the Philippine National Police “to compel these PUIs to agree to be confined and undergo isolation and testing.”

In the global scene, the virus has infected a total of 28,256 individuals as of Thursday morning, with more than 28,000 in China where it was first detected. There have been 563 deaths so far, all recorded in China except one each in the Philippines and Hong Kong.

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