There are still no recorded or detected active coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Bohol.
This was made clear after Governor Arthur Yap on Wednesday issued a statement denying erroneous claims that PH465 or the country’s 465th confirmed COVID-19 patient was confined in Bohol.
The information on the COVID 19 patient which spread like wildfire on social media however was not completely unsubstantiated as this was sourced from the Department of Health’s (DOH) nCoV tracker website which indicated that PH465 was confined at the Ace Medical Center in Tagbilaran City.
Data from the tracker came out as erroneous as Yap said that Doctor Rio Magpantay of the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau clarified that PH645 is not from Bohol and that their system was already being fixed.
“Sir, PH465 is NOT from Bohol. We are improving the system. Thank you,” Magpantay was quoted as saying to Yap.
Based on data from the DOH, there have been three confirmed COVID-19 cases in Central Visayas and one of them was a Chinese woman who traveled to Bohol.
The coronavirus-positive woman was in Bohol starting January 20 and was confirmed to have had the virus on February 3, three days after she left the province on January 31.
The issue was closely covered by both local and national media outlets considering that the woman was only the third COVID-19 case in the Philippines, but it was quickly out of the limelight after COVID-19 cases in the country started to rapidly pile up earlier this month.
The recent resurfacing of the information on the woman caused further confusion and spread fear among Bohol residents, as some news agencies particularly those in Cebu City where the DOH’s regional headquarters is based issued the list of confirmed cases in the region, but did not indicate that the woman who is PH03 is not a current COVID-19 patient.
Yap had earlier assured that thorough contact tracing was done by local health authorities and the DOH to determine if any of those she was in contact with while in Bohol were infected.
Over 10 of those in contact with PH03 including hospital staff were quarantined for 14 days and were considered as patients under investigation after they showed flu-like symptoms, but they all turned out negative for the disease.
According to Dr. Yul Lopez, spokesperson of the Capitol’s COVID-19 inter-agency task force, there are 13 persons under investigation (PUI) for suspected infection with the disease as of Wednesday morning.
They have taken swab samples from the patients and these were sent to Cebu City for testing.