The Department of Health said yesterday that the health condition of the five-year-old boy from Wuhan, China who manifested symptoms of the China virus is now getting better.
“‘Yung bata po magaling na. Konting ubo wala na pong lagnat,” said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
Duque said that the child still remains in isolation in a medical facility in Cebu City, adding that they are still awaiting the test result from the Victorian Infectious Diseases References Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia to determine if the child is infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus or not. The test result is expected to come out today.
The Health chief noted that the child’s mother is also in isolation but did not exhibit any symptoms of respiratory illness. “Kaya meron pa rin posibilidad na baka hindi naman talaga ito posibleng novel coronavirus,” said Duque.
Health experts had earlier said that the child, who arrived in Cebu City last Jan. 12, had tested positive for “non-specific pancorona virus assay.”
“That only indicates that that the infection is a coronavirus and there are many coronaviruses that cause respiratory infections which are very mild,” World Health Organization Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe had said.
Duque said that the public should not be alarmed at this point in time.
“Not at this point because this positive test from our Research Institute for Tropical Medicine simply is for the non-specific pancorona virus. Nothing definite as of now,” he said. “The situation continues to evolve and you don’t know how these things will turn out at each corner. Let’s be prudent,” he added.
Meanwhile, hospitals and health centers in Central Visayas are on heightened surveillance in the wake of the suspected coronavirus case involving the boy from Wuhan.
Dr. Jaime Bernadas, director of the Department of Health-Central Visayas, assured that medical facilities in the region are ready to attend to patients afflicted with the virus.
“Our health units in the cities and municipalities are aware of the protocols. They are aware how to address the threat,” said Bernadas. (Analou de Vera with Calvin Cordova)