The Department of Health (DoH) urged the public to stop spreading misinformation about the new strain of coronavirus after three Chinese nationals bound for world-famous Boracay Island were quarantined after arriving in Kalibo town, Aklan province.
“There is no case of the new coronavirus in the country. The three Chinese underwent quarantine because it is standard operating procedure,” clarified Dr. Jessie Glen Alonsabe, DoH’schief epidemiologist for Western Visayas region.
To recall, the three Chinese nationals were previously quarantined at a hospital in Kalibo after the D0H’s Bureau of Quarantine monitored they were feverish or had difficulty in breathing when they arrived separately at Kalibo Airport onboard a plane from China.
While the three have been discharged and went to Boracay in Malay town for their vacation, their blood samples and other specimens will be sent to DoH’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Metro Manila for confirmatory tests.
“Again, they underwent observation. They were tested, but there is no confirmation,” Alonsabe reiterated in Tuesday.
Health officials also clarified that no red alert status has been raised in the area after the three Chinese nationals were temporarily quarantined.
“There is no declaration of red alert status and it is not the official stand of the government,” emphasized Dr. Cornelio Cuachon Jr., chief of the Aklan Provincial Health Office (APPO).
This amidst false information from an Aklan-based reporter that quickly spread to the rest of Western Visayas region last Monday, claiming the province is under red alert status.
“Definitely, that phrase did not come from DoH. When we say we are on alert, it means we have to monitor those entering the country, especially if the flights came from China,” Alonsabe explained.
