By ANALOU DE VERA
A 60-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, China became the third confirmed case of 2019 novel coronavirus in the country, the Department of Health announced Wednesday.
“The patient arrived in Cebu City from Wuhan, China via Hong Kong last January 20, 2020, and traveled to Bohol thereafter. On January 22, the patient consulted a private hospital in Bohol after experiencing fever and coryza,” said Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo in a press briefing at the DoH-Central Office in Manila.
Domingo said that the Chinese woman had no fever when she passed through the thermal scanners upon her arrival in Cebu City last January 20.
Domingo noted that the samples taken from the patient last January 24 tested negative for the novel coronavirus. The test was performed by both the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia and the Philippines’ Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City.
“Results from said tests came back negative last January 29 and 30, and upon recovery of the patient, she was discharged and was allowed to return to China via Cebu last January 31,” said Domingo.
The Health undersecretary, however, noted that the RITM last Monday notified them that an earlier sample from the patient – dated January 23 – tested positive for 2019 nCoV, “making her the third confirmed 2019-nCoV ARD in the Philippines.”
“They (RITM) decided to also run all of the old samples that they had. One of her samples was from January 23 –an earlier sample. So apparently, ito ‘yung naging positive,” said Domingo.
“The picture is – the patient was infected but was getting better and nag-negative na siya on the 24th and a week later siya na discharged – negative,” he said.
“In their clinical explanation is that the patient was probably towards the end of the illness at that time kaya positive pa siya pero ‘yung subsequent test was already negative na – both at RITM and in Australia. So validated twice ‘yung kanyang negative result,” Domingo added.
Domingo said that they are now conducting contact tracing to identify the individuals who had contact with the Chinese woman.
“The Epidemiology Bureau has initiated contact tracing of persons who interacted with or were in close proximity to the patient,” said Domingo.
“The Bureau of Quarantine and EB are coordinating with the concerned airline while the Central Visayas Center for Health Development is in coordination with the hotel where the patient stayed and the hospital where she was admitted,” he added.
