14 close contacts of foreigner with MERS-CoV home quarantined

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) infecting red blood cells. (Photo from OFWGuide.com)

MANILA – Fourteen persons were added to the previously seven persons undergoing home quarantine after close contact with the 36-year-old foreigner infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV).

The 21 persons quarantined included close contacts and hospital workers the male foreigner had interacted with when he started showing symptoms of the deadly disease.

“We will monitor them for 14 days (until July 16) because they might suddenly develop symptoms of the virus,” Department of Health (DOH) spokesperson Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy said.

Among them, one Filipina female was quarantined at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) after developing a cough.

After preliminary laboratory tests, she yielded negative for MERS-CoV but remained confined at the hospital.

“She tested negative for the virus so she can already be transferred from the negative pressure room to a regular room but we will continue to observe her because the 14-day incubation period has not yet ended,” Lee Suy said.

Meanwhile, the MERS-CoV patient was also quarantined at the RITM and has been ‘recuperating’ from the illness.

“[The] foreign patient is still recuperating, and is recovering well,” DOH Secretary Janette Garin said.

The patient has been scheduled to undergo two tests within 48-hour intervals and should he yield negative results in both tests, he will then be declared free of MERS-CoV.

Backstory: DOH: Second MERS-CoV case in PH from Middle East foreigner