The country’s third confirmed novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) case involved a 60-year-old woman who traveled to Bohol last month, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
In a press conference, Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said the Chinese woman has already been discharged from a hospital in Bohol and has returned to China.
The patient was reported to be from Wuhan, which has been identified as the nCoV ARD’s epicenter, and traveled to Bohol from Hong Kong via Cebu.
She sought medical attention at a private hospital in Bohol on January 22 after experiencing cold and fever, and then she was later admitted at the health facility.
“The patient arrived in Cebu City from Wuhan via Hong Kong last January 20, 2020 then went directly to Bohol. On January 22, the patient consulted a private hospital in Bohol after expereincing fever and coryza,” said Domingo.
Coryza means runny nose as indicated in the DOH’s website.
According to Domingo, samples were taken from the Chinese tourist on January 23 and January 24 and the results from Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Australia released on January 29 and 30 were negative for 2019-nCov.
The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City found the January 24 samples negative for 2019-nCov.
The results prompted the authorities to allow the woman to be discharged from the hospital in Bohol. She later returned to China on January 31.
Doctor Cesar Tomas Lopez of the Provincial Health Office assured that the the woman was confined at an isolation ward while the results were awaited. She was only allowed to leave after two confirmatory tests indicated that she was already free of the disease.
However, the DOH received on February 3 information from the RITM indicating that the January 23 samples were positive for 2019-nCoV ARD.
Domingo clarified that it was the January 23 test that yielded a positive result while the January 24 was already negative, indicating that patient may have already been free of the disease when the second test was made.
The DOH has launched contact-tracing of persons who have been in contact with the patient on days leading to her admission, not when she was discharged as she is believed to have been better then.
“The Epedemiology Bureau (EB) has initiated contact-tracing of persons who interacted with or those in close proximity to the patient especially during the first leg of her trip before admission at the hospital,” Domingo said.
The Bureau of Quarantine and the EB are coordinating with the concerned airlines while the Central Visayas Center for Health Development has started to coordinate with the hotel where the patient stayed and the hospital where she was confined.