Don’t panic, but there are now local transmissions of coronavirus in the country, meaning that there are now patients that were infected locally.

Just last Friday, Mar. 6, the Department of Health confirmed that two Filipinos were infected by the disease, one of whom was initially admitted at St. Luke’s hospital in Taguig before they were transferred to the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine in Alabang.

The DOH also confirmed that one of the patients, “a regular visitor of a Muslim prayer hall in Barangay Greenhills in San Juan City,” had “no known history of travel outside of the country.”

Health secretary Francisco Duque III stressed that while that was a local case, it’s still too early to say that there is a local transmission of the virus. “It is a local case. [There is] no transmission to speak of as of yet because we only have one,” he said. “It is premature to say that there is a local transmission.”

Just two days later, on Mar. 8, the DOH confirmed four more cases of coronavirus—two of which were local cases, a 38-year-old Taiwanese man and 57-year-old Filipino man who both did not have a recent travel history outside the country.

“Now that there are confirmed cases of localized transmission, DOH and the Inter-agency Task Force are now implementing pre-planned measures to respond to the situation,” announced Duque, adding that the health department has “been preparing for the possibility of localized transmission in the country.”

DOH is advising those “presenting with fever and/or respiratory symptoms with a history of travel and exposure are also urged to get in touch with DOH and call the designated hotline at (02)8-651-7800 loc 1149-1150 for appropriate management and referral.” The president is also set to declare a state of public health emergency soon to “facilitate mobilization of resources, ease processes, including procurement of critical logistics and supplies, and intensifying reporting.”

Header photo courtesy of Inquirer.net

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