{"id":243428,"date":"2020-01-29T19:56:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T00:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243428"},"modified":"2020-01-29T19:56:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T00:56:55","slug":"palace-concerned-over-rising-number-of-suspected-ncov-cases-in-ph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/29\/palace-concerned-over-rising-number-of-suspected-ncov-cases-in-ph\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace concerned over rising number of suspected nCoV cases in PH"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
“We are looking at it with serious concern so the President has instructed DOH Secretary to study and evaluate what better procedures should be taken in order to contain, stop the coming in of this disease to the country,\u201d Panelo said in a media interview. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang is concerned over the rising number of \u201cpersons under investigation\u201d for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“We are looking at it with serious concern so the President has instructed DOH Secretary to study and evaluate what better procedures should be taken in order to contain, stop the coming in of this disease to the country,\u201d Panelo said in a media interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to secure ourselves,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday announced that there are now 27 persons suspected of having nCoV after manifesting symptoms of respiratory infection and having history of travel in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus outbreak.<\/p>\n

Panelo reminded the public to practice safety precautions against the virus such as frequent hand-washing, avoiding symptomatic individuals, proper coughing etiquette, consuming enough water, and seeking immediate medical help when experiencing symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked with (Health) Sec. (Francisco) Duque. He said we don\u2019t have to worry. If we have to make ourselves conscious of the fact that there may be some virus coming in, we have to protect ourselves by avoiding crowds, wear masks, wash hands,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

The DOH said the 27 persons under investigation for nCoV are all foreigners — American, Brazilian, Chinese, and German.<\/p>\n

They were identified in Metro Manila, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), Eastern Visayas, and Northern Mindanao.<\/p>\n

Reports showed that a Chinese suspected of having the deadly virus has died at San Lazaro Hospital due to pneumonia.<\/p>\n

San Lazaro Hospital director Dr. Edmundo Lopez, however, said it was not confirmed if the 29-year-old male patient died of nCoV.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are no Filipinos suspected of having the novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Best option<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite around 50 Filipino workers in Hubei province, mostly from Wuhan, having expressed desire to return home amid the nCoV outbreak, Panelo said the \u201cbest option\u201d was for them to stay and follow Chinese health protocols.<\/p>\n

Panelo said travelling back home would further endanger Filipino workers when exposed to public places such as airports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be difficult to repatriate them because we might be even risking them to contamination. So the best thing I suppose is to let them stay there and follow protocols in China,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo said he will ask the President to comment on lawmakers\u2019 recommendation to quarantine Filipino workers who want to be repatriated.<\/p>\n

There are around 300 Filipino in Hubei province, with 150 in Wuhan City, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).<\/p>\n

The DFA has expressed readiness to repatriate Filipinos in Wuhan and the rest of Hubei \u201csubject to China\u2019s rules on Disease Containment, including immigration clearance and quarantine process, among others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Special flights have been made available to Filipino workers who wish to be repatriated.<\/p>\n

Filipinos who will arrive in the Philippines will be subjected to 14 days of quarantine as ordered by the DOH, the DFA said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang is concerned over the rising number of \u201cpersons under investigation\u201d for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Presidential Spokesperson Salvador …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":197910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243429,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243428\/revisions\/243429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}