Employees of the hotel in Dumaguete City and the beach resort in Dauin, Negros Oriental, who may have come in contact with the Chinese national confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus, have been placed on home arrest while a team from the Department of Health will evaluate their conditions.
Dr. Liland Bustamante-Estacion, assistant head of the integrated provincial health office, said the home arrest was being implemented by the owners of the said establishments upon the request of the government.
The owner of the hotel has asked Gov. Roel Degamo that the name of his establishment not be mentioned.
“But he is very cooperative” (in our investigation), said Degamo in a press conference on Friday.
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The coronavirus patient, a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, arrived with her boyfriend in Cebu from Hong Kong on January 21.
She stayed overnight in Cebu and took a plane for Dumaguete the following day.
The woman stayed in a hotel in Dumaguete. The next day, they went to a beach resort in Dauin, some 14 kilometers south of Dumaguete, and again stayed there overnight.
Apo Island barangay captain Mario Pascobello said they were trying to determine whether the tourist visited Apo Island, which is frequented by about 250 Chinese tourists every day.
Apo Island is an internationally renowned dive site and is gaining popularity for its marine turtles, which tourists can swim freely with.
Pascobello said he was meeting with Dauin Mayor Galic Truita to determine if they needed to close Apo Island to visitors while the coronavirus scare grips the country.
Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines has placed the crew of one of its Dumaguete — Manila flight under quarantine.
PAL, in a statement released Friday, said they had placed the flight crew – two pilots and four cabin crew – under quarantine after the Chinese woman who was found positive of the 2019 novel coronavirus was a passenger on one of their flights.
The airline also said they were contacting the passengers seated near the patient, who had been confined in San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila.
“The BOQ (Bureau of Quarantine) will take charge of placing the concerned passengers and crew under medical observation. These passengers will be guided on the next steps. We are also working to trace any onward journeys made by these passengers and crew on other flights, in case there is a need for BOQ to contact other people for precautionary medical observation,” PAL stated.
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On the other hand, Cebu Pacific has started identifying and contacting the passengers seated near the 38-year-old Chinese woman who tested positive of the NCov.
In a statement issued Friday, Cebu Pacific also said they would be pulling out of the line and disinfecting the planes boarded by the patient.
They also said cabin crews and pilots showed no symptoms of the disease.
The airline also announced that they will take the following several precautionary measures in all their international and domestic flights:
1.Cleaning and disinfection of aircraft in between flights.
2. Wearing of face masks by our employees, frontline personnel and cabin crew while on duty.
3. Providing face masks to passengers who show symptoms of illness. When possible, isolation of passengers who manifest symptoms of illness in empty rows inside the aircraft during the flight. (IFBP)
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