Local COVID-19 patient dies; total cases hit 49

MANILA, Philippines — Sixteen more confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have emerged, bringing to 49 the total number of cases, with one of the new patients becoming the first Filipino who contracted the virus locally to die.

The Department of Health (DOH) reported the death late last night.

“The DOH confirms circulating reports regarding the death of confirmed COVID-19 patient in Manila. The reported death is the patient with ID PH35 confined at the Manila Doctors Hospital in Manila,” the DOH said in an advisory.

PH 35 refers to a 67-year-old Filipino woman with no history of exposure to the virus. She tested positive only yesterday. The DOH said it was “validating more information on the reported death.”

With this, the Philippines now has two deaths from COVID-19. The first was a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan, China, who died of severe pneumonia on Feb. 1. He was the second COVID-19 case in the Philippines.

Health Assistant Secretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire said six of the new cases were foreign nationals – two from Japan and one each from Singapore, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea.

These patients had traveled to the Philippines and tested positive for the virus after returning to their countries.

“Two of them are under home quarantine – the Australian and Singaporean. The two Japanese and Taiwanese are admitted in facilities abroad while we have no information on the status of the Korean,” she added.

A doctor – a Quezon City resident – is among the new confirmed cases, according to Mayor Joy Belmonte. She said over radio dzRH that the doctor is the fourth case in the city. City health personnel would trace the whereabouts of people who may have come into contact with this latest case. She gave no other details.

“Our local hospitals are ready, but with the limited number of isolation rooms, we are working with the private sector for a facility to be used as isolation units for quarantine purposes,” she said.

Data show there are three more positive cases in the provinces, raising the total number of cases outside Metro Manila to four.

Vergeire assured the public that the Department of Health (DOH) had already deployed surveillance teams to do “extensive information-gathering and contact tracing activities on the new cases.”

With regard to the first 33 cases, she said that as of yesterday, patients 25 to 28 and 30 to 33 are all in “stable condition” while the 29th “is intubated and has underlying cardiovascular and endocrine conditions.”

Patient 29 – an 82-year-old Filipino woman – got the virus from patient No. 9, her 86-year-old American husband who has a history of travel to the United States and South Korea. The latter is also being closely monitored due to hypertension.

Aside from the couple, patient No. 5 – a 62 year-old Filipino male who started the local transmission of COVID-19 in the country – is also in “guarded condition” for severe pneumonia, hypertension and diabetes. He infected his 59-year-old wife who is known as patient No. 6.

“DOH is continuously monitoring the status of all patients to ensure that no complications arise throughout their recovery,” she added.

Vergiere also announced that 442 of the 445 repatriates from MV Diamond Princess in Japan have been released from the quarantine facility at New Clark City (NCC) in Capas, Tarlac. A total of 437 of them are crew plus five passengers.

Two of the repatriates were brought to Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital after they were found to have contracted the virus while one was left at NCC awaiting lab results.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) director general Eric Domingo said the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH) will initially be capable of doing a maximum of 1,000 tests per week.

“There will be selection on who should be tested before the testing kits can be made widely available to the public,” he added.

On the other hand, the testing capacity of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) is around 300 per day.

On reports that hospitals are turning away cases of COVID-19 and patients under investigation (PUIs), Vergeire said that Level 2 and Level 3 hospitals “are mandated to accept PUIs.”

She said that hospitals have a commitment with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to follow its guidelines, including the acceptance of patients.

Doing otherwise will be a violation of PhilHealth guidelines.

Isolation rooms

Anticipating what it called “community transmission,” the DOH has directed all government hospitals to convert their private rooms into isolation wards in preparation for possible community transmission of COVID-19.

Vergeire said all public hospitals have been tasked to prepare to handle COVID-19 patients by temporarily not accepting private patients.

“As part of our initial stages of preparation for community transmission, we have ordered all government hospitals to stop accepting private patients temporarily. They should reserve the private rooms of government hospitals to serve as isolation rooms,” she said at a press conference.

Vergeire noted such a scheme is meant to make sure there is enough isolation room in case the “original bed capacity of a hospital is exceeded.”

She was reacting to a leaked “internal memo” of The Medical City (TMC) dated March 10 stating that the hospital “will temporarily stop admitting all patients under investigation effective immediately.”

“At the rate we are taking care of three confirmed cases and several admitted PUIs, currently available manpower will be unable to care for any additional patients,” the statement showed.

It further read that “while our patients are our primary concern, we cannot ignore the fact that a healthy and safe workforce is imperative to sustain the level and quality of care that we provide to our currently admitted patients.”

In a statement, TMC president and chief executive officer Eugenio Jose Ramos maintained that as of March 11, there were eight confirmed COVID-19 cases under its care.

Ramos added they were also handling 31 PUIs, “a number that exceeded the daily load that our healthcare frontliners have to attend to in the Emergency Department, in addition to all other non-COVID-19 cases in the hospital.”

“Last night (March 10), seeing that an acceptable balance had to be maintained between following globally-mandated protocols to address a sudden surge and the capacity of our hospital to mobilize a fully equipped and protected staff, an internal memo from the head of our Epidemic Response Team (ERRT) meant to temporarily control the in-flow of new cases was unfortunately leaked to social media,” he said.

He described the leakage as a “malicious virus that spreads faster than COVID-19.”

“Let it be clear, therefore, that as this epidemic evolves in ways that we cannot but must anticipate, The Medical City, ever so proud of its ERRT as well as its entire hospital staff, will remain open to all patients who deserve our care for as long as our capacity to do so allows it,” Ramos added.

Vitamins, supplements distribution

Meanwhile, Quezon City’s Belmonte said the city would distribute vitamins, supplements and maintenance medicines to senior citizens, as they are more prone to complications caused by COVID-19.

She would also issue a memorandum prohibiting school-age children from entering malls and computer shops during school hours.

“Students should stay home and do their homework during the duration of the suspension of classes until March 14,” she said, adding that the city has coordinated with the police and barangays to ensure that children caught are brought back home.

The mayor also prohibited assemblies and public gatherings by the local government and non-government organizations and strongly encouraged the private sector to do the same.

Belmonte belied a report that the city government is planning to implement a lockdown if the number of cases continues to rise.

“During my interview, I clearly said that the task force is studying the possible effects and impact on our city if a lockdown is declared so we can be prepared,” she said. “There was no mention of any plan for me to place the city under lockdown.”

Seven of the confirmed cases are residents of San Juan City, where the first local case of infection was recorded. Two of the seven were among the nine new cases in the country announced by the DOH the other day,

Mayor Francis Zamora said yesterday at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum.

One was a 62-year-old male patient who lives in Barangay Greenhills and the other a 28-year-old woman who lives in Barangay Maytunas.

Both had no recent travel record outside the country. They were being treated in a private hospital in Pasig City.

Three of the patients had no travel history: a 72-year-old male living in Barangay Little Baguio, a 30-year-old female resident of Barangay West Crame and a 51-year-old female resident of Barangay Corazon de Jesus, whom Zamora said had a possible close contact with a patient being treated in a private hospital.

The remaining patients were a couple who had recently traveled to Bali, Indonesia – a 70-year-old male and a 69-year-old female from Barangay Greenhills now confined in a hospital in Parañaque.

“All patients are showing symptoms but are in stable condition… Hopefully, it stops there… They are all in private hospitals, but they are all in stable condition,” Zamora said.

The 62-year-old patient who frequented a prayer hall in Greenhills, Zamora explained, was counted as a patient from Cainta, where he resides. The man, who was in critical condition, was the country’s first local case and his wife was recorded as the first local transmission.

San Juan City has started a sanitation and disinfection program. Canon and turbo misting was done in schools and in the streets of Barangay West Crame.

Of the over 119,000 cases recorded worldwide, only five percent are in critical condition, 15 percent are exhibiting moderate to severe symptoms and 80 percent are showing mild symptoms. Most people recover from the virus.

Two UP Diliman faculty members have also submitted themselves for testing after exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms.

UP vice president for public affairs Elena Pernia said the university is strictly carrying out protocols after the two faculty members were declared PUIs.

The two recently attended an academic conference in Japan and have submitted themselves for possible COVID-19 infection after exhibiting symptoms. – Janvic Mateo, Delon Porcalla, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Pia Lee- Brago, EveluynMacairan

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