Health authorities declare Visayas still MERS-free

Department of Health Secretary Enrique Ona, shows how the thermal scanner of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminal 3 works by detecting high temperature from a passenger. (GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

DOH clears 414 Etihad passengers after tests yielded negative results
Health authorities declared Cebu and the rest of Central Visayas as still free from the dreaded Middle East Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) after the remaining swab tests on passengers of an Etihad Airways flight that carried a carrier of the disease yielded negative results.

The swab tests of the suspected cases who were placed under quarantine in Negros Oriental and the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) were released three days after the first batch of results was announced, said Reynan Cimafranca, head of the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (RESU-7).

Authorities also managed to locate the previously reported unaccounted Etihad passenger, Cimafranca told Cebu Daily News. They found the person in Cebu province by tracing addresses found in different social media sites.

“He was very cooperative and there was no problem when we asked him to undergo the swab test. The result was also negative,” said Cimafranca.

Last April 24, Department of Health (DOH-7) Assistant Regional Director Lakshmi Legaspi announced that the first batch of swab tests results for 23 people were nega tive.

Of the number, 20 are from Cebu, two from Bohol and one from Negros Oriental.

Still, Cimafranca called on the public especially those from the Middle East to undergo medical check-ups.

“If they are not feeling well and they experience symptoms of MERS-Cov, they should not hesitate to go to the hospital for examination,” he said.

Symptoms include high fever, cough, and shortness of breath. There is still no cure or vaccine for it.

Cimafranca said they are still expecting more people who arrived from the Middle East to volun tarily present themselves for swab test and quarantine.

Swab tests and quarantine are offered free at VSMMC.

In a separate briefing in Manila, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said all 414 passengers of the Etihad Airways flight feared to have been infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) are free of the potentially fatal disease.

Ona said the 401 passengers who underwent the nose-and-throat swab examinations all turned out negative for the virus.

“We are still very lucky. Despite the fact that our overseas Filipino workers come home on a daily basis, we still don’t have a positive case of MERS-CoV and we are very happy about that,” said Ona.

Meanwhile, another Filipino nurse suspected of having MERS-CoV was in the intensive care unit (ICU) of King Fahd Medical City in Saudi Arabia, her husband in Bacolod City said Sunday.