The Department of Health might resort to a forced quarantine on patients who refuse to be isolated despite showing severe symptoms linked to the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease, officials said Friday.
“We are urging everyone, especially the [patients under investigation or PUIs] who refused admission, to cooperate with the DOH, their local government units and the Philippine National Police (PNP),” Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said at a news conference.
He called on Filipinos to help protect the health of their fellowmen even as the cumulative total of persons under investigation for the 2019 novel coronavirus (nCoV) stood at 215 as of noon Friday.
Domingo said that of that number, 184 are admitted and isolated, nine have refused admission, 17 have been discharged under strict monitoring, while two have died of other causes.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization will give the Philippines test kits to hasten the detection of the novel coronavirus, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Friday.
“I said let’s be quick. The key here is the fast and credible testing of the novel coronavirus, so these test kits will speed it up,” he said.
Under present conditions, the wait for confirmation eats up time and “there is a congestion of patients,” Duque said.
Domingo said 441 people who came into contact with the Chinese couple who tested positive for nCoV have been identified by the DOH Epidemiology Bureau and the Philippine National Police.
Of this number, he said 379 were passengers and crew from flights taken by the confirmed cases, while 62 contacts were from hotels or resorts, hospitals, public vehicles, and other places visited by the confirmed cases.
The confirmed nCoV cases, the 38-year-old Chinese woman and her boyfriend, the 44-year-old Chinese man who both came from Wuhan, China, epicenter of the novel coronavirus, traveled to the Philippines and went to Cebu and Dumaguete cities, boarding Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines flights.
Of the contacts, 203 were placed on home quarantine, while 32 contacts exhibiting symptoms were categorized as patients under investigation and confined in hospital.
He said the remaining 206 have yet to be interviewed due to erroneous contact information.
To date, 106 contacts were traced, including all 90 co-passengers and 16 individuals from hotels and hospitals in contact with the third confirmed case. Currently, 22 contacts have been interviewed and were placed on home quarantine, while four symptomatic contacts have been confined.
Initially, the DOH had to send samples to the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Australia for the confirmation of the virus until the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine recently brought primers to perform the test.
“So I said, ‘Please, please WHO we need these test kits as soon as possible.’ So that the turnaround of the patient, the turnaround time is quicker,” he said.
The Office of the President said those who go near President Rodrigo Duterte are required to declare their travel and medical history.
The Events Management Cluster of the Office of the President has been requiring Palace guests and those who have engagements with Duterte to disclose if they traveled to foreign countries or were recently sick.
The guests will be asked to fill out a “health declaration form” containing questions such as countries or cities they had traveled from, as well as their exposure to farm or wild animals.
“The health declaration form is an additional precautionary measure to ensure the safety and security, not just of President Duterte, but everyone who is working at or visiting Malacañang,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said.
The clearance covers “not only all visitors, but our Cabinet secretaries, government officials, and employees who will interact with the President,” he added.
Those who will falsify their responses might face “serious consequences,” the document read.
Meanwhile, airport authorities urged the public not to go in groups to welcome or meet passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to avoid possible infections.
Manila International Airport Authority general manager Eddie Monreal appealed to families and friends of air travelers not to bring highly vulnerable people to the airport, especially children, the elderly, immuno-compromised individuals and those with underlying medical conditions to protect them from possible exposure.
“This call is being made not to alarm the public. This is our simple way of supporting inter-agency efforts to prevent and contain the spread of the virus,” said Monreal.
“Let us say our goodbyes at home and not go to the airport in groups when meeting a passenger. It is very hard to fight tradition, but in times like this, everyone should look out for their own safety,” the airport chief said.
Also on Friday, the Alliance of Health Workers held a rally to push for a P16,000 national minimum wage and increase in health budget to 5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). With Willie Casas
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