Following the coronavirus outbreak in China, the Department of Health (DOH) is investigating a case of a patient who tested positive for a new coronavirus strain: a five-year-old child who traveled from Wuhan, China to Cebu City, and was admitted for having a fever and throat irritation.
According to DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III, the child tested negative for Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-COV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-COV). Samples from the child, however, tested positive for a non-specific pancorona virus strain, and have been sent to Australia for identification.
The DOH’s press release also added that they have also been monitoring three individuals who have exhibited flu-like symptoms after entering the country from China but have no known contact with a confirmed novel coronavirus. Samples from the patients have been sent for testing, and the patients are no longer showing any symptoms.
UPDATE: According to a test conducted by the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, the patient tested negative for the novel coronavirus.
Despite this, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III noted that they will be monitoring developments with the 2019-nCoV and ensuring mechanisms to contain the threat.
Header image by Olga Kononenko of Unsplash
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