The PNP Regional Office in Central Visayas is tracking the 14 passengers of Flight EY0424 who were supposedly exposed to the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome or MERS Coronavirus.
In a phone interview, Senior Supt. Erson Digal, chief of the Regional Operations Plans Division of the Police Regional Office, said the 14 passengers are from the provinces of Negros Oriental, Bohol, and Cebu.
They already have the names and contact numbers of the passengers. Initially, they were able to contact some of them and they were willing to undergo testing at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center or VSMMC.
They are assigning police officers to every health unit where there are suspected cases, to also trace those who got in contact with the 14 passengers of the said flight.
Digal and the DOH-7 had an emergency meeting last Friday evening on the tracking and information dissemination on the MERS Coronavirus.
Dr. Expedito Medalla of the Health Emergency Management of DOH-7 said the 14 is just the initial number of passengers from Region-7 on board EY 0242. They are still waiting for the whole manifest of passengers.
Last Friday evening, DOH-7 assisted four patients on board an ambulance from Pinamungajan town at the VSMMC. In a phone interview, Medalla confirmed that the four patients were among the initially traced 14 passengers to undergo testing.
He said the four patients were on the flight home from a pilgrimage. Medalla said the four patients were not all from Pinamungajan town but from other locations. Medalla said the four were tested negative and were sent home afterwards.