 Secretary Francisco Duque III reported two new cases of Coronavirus in the Philippines on Friday afternoon.){kind=link}
Secretary of Health Francisco Duque III reported two new cases of Coronavirus in the Philippines on Friday afternoon.
Further, a 62-year-old man,who haven’t traveled to other countries, tested positive for the COVID-19.
According to the patient, he often visits the Muslim prayer hall located at Greenhills, San Juan.
The absent of travels indicates that the incident is a local case of COVID-19.
“There is no transmission to speak of as of yet because we only have one. We’re doing contact tracing to establish whether or not there are other cases or clustering of cases. But now it’s premature to say there is a local transmission, ” Duque stated.
The World Health Organization (WHO) clarifies that “local transmission” occurs when the source of infection is within the reporting location.
“It may be a local case but we have no clear evidence at this point of time so in any epidemiological investigation there is a time you are not clear where the infection was actually acquired and how,” Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO Country representative.
On the other, a 48-year-old Filipino man who came from Tokyo, Japan, tested positive for COVID-19.
He went back to the country on February 25 and experienced chills and fever on March 3.
Moreover, the two reported patients have been confined at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
“DOH tracked down 29 people who came in contact with the two confirmed cases,” Maria Rosario Vergerie, Health Assistant Secretary, stated.
“Samples have already been collected from close contacts. DOH is also in close coordination with the concerned local government units for concerted action on identifying persons who had interaction with the confirmed cases,” Duque said.
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