Cavite designates hospital ‘wing’ for coronavirus

SAN PEDRO CITY–The provincial government of Cavite on Monday said another person was tested and placed under hospital quarantine after showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19.

The person, from Imus City, had a record of recent travel to a country with confirmed cases of the virus, said Cavite health officer Nelson Soriano.

“We had just sent (the specimen sample) to the RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) for testing,” Soriano added.

In a separate phone interview, Cavite governor Juanito Victor Remulla said another person, from Cavite City, was also placed under hospital observation two weeks ago until the test results showed the patient negative for the virus.

Remulla said they were currently preparing a “response scenario” in case of an outbreak in the province of 4.2 million people, for instance by designating a “special wing” for COVID-19 patients at the provincial government hospital in Trece Martires City.

There was no confirmed case yet in Cavite but Soriano said they had met with the municipal officials for the establishment of a barangay health emergency response team, specially after the Department of Health confirmed a local transmission of the virus.

Since the early months of the virus outbreak in 2019, Cavite had tested 32 people either with symptoms or history of travel to infected countries.

Soriano said the test results for five more persons, including the one from Imus City, have yet to come back, while the rest of the 32 had already tested negative.

Edited by TSB