CEBU CITY, Philippines — A patient suspected of having the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Cebu City died on Sunday, March 15, 2020.
The Cebu City Health Office confirmed this in a press conference on Sunday.
City Health Officer, Dr. Daisy Villa, said the patient was a 27-year-old female resident of the city, who was admitted in a privately owned hospital due to tuberculous (TB)-meningitis.
Villa said the patient succumbed to severe pneumonia.
“She died this morning (March 15, 2020) due to severe pneumonia,” she said.
Villa said she was considered a patient under investigation (PUI) after they found out that she had been in contact with other PUIs in Cebu.
The City Health Officer (CHO) also said they were awaiting confirmatory results from the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM).
“We have sent her specimen to RITM before she succumbed to severe pneumonia. We’re now waiting for the results,” added Villa.
The patient was first admitted in the first week of February due to TB-Meningitis. She was discharged two weeks later.
On March 10, she was readmitted to a public hospital for dizziness and vomiting but was transferred to a privately owned hospital for further treatment.
Physicians noted that she had cough and experienced difficulty breathing on March 12. Before she passed away at 2:45 a.m. on March 15, surveillance officers conducted a swab test to determine if she contracted COVID-19. /dbs