The Philippine National Police has been given 48 hours starting yesterday morning to locate the more than 250 airline passengers who were on board the two flights with the two foreign tourists who earlier tested positive for novel coronavirus.
Police Major Gen. Jose Napoleon Coronel, director of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said they have been ordered to determine the health condition of all the passengers, particularly those who made direct contact with the two Chinese.
The couple arrived in the country last Jan. 21. Both of them were tested positive for nCoV, and one of them died.
“We will also be getting assistance from the Department of Health in physically locating and confronting the passengers and asking them to undergo medical examination,” said Coronel.
Coronel said they will use the data given by two local airline companies in locating the passengers. The data, according to Coronel, contain their phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses.
Meanwhile, the PNP said yesterday that criminal charges would be filed against any netizen caught spreading fake news about the coronavirus.
Police Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, PNP spokesman, said that spreading of unverified and unvalidated information about the coronavirus only cause alarm on the public which are now fearful of the deadly viral infection. (Aaron Recuenco)
