Villa: 1 in Cebu City placed under home quarantine

Cebu City’s emergency personnel show their preparedness to respond to suspected cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus during a simulation exercise held at the Plaza Sugbu on Tuesday, February 4, 2020.  | CDN Digital File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Health Department (CHD) is closely monitoring a person under investigation (PUI) for the 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) who is now undergoing home quarantine in one of the barangays here.

City Health Officer Daisy Villa said that the patient chose to undergo “home isolation” following an encounter with Chinese nationals coming from Wuhan City in Hubei province.

Approximately ten days ago, the Cebuano welcomed a group from Wuhan City who arrived at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) via Macau.

Villa begged off from naming the Cebuano and from providing details on his/her engagements with the Wuhan City residents in order to also protect his/her identity.

She could not also say if the Wuhan residents, whom he PUI met with, have already left Cebu or if they are among the PUIs who are currently being monitored by the Department of Health (DOH).

DOH Central Visayas officials said that they are now monitoring at least 29 PUIs who are currently in Cebu.

Read: DOH: Third coronavirus positive patient traveled to Cebu and Bohol

Based on their monitoring, Villa said that the PUI, who is under home quarantine, did not show signs and symptoms of the 2019-nCoV.  They are hoping that the person is not suffering from the 2019-nCoV infection.

“Wala man gyod siyay symptoms so we hope wala ra sad siya natakdan. No need to worry kay wala sad gyod siyay gawas-gawas sa balay,” she said.

(The PUI has not manifested symptoms of the 2019-nCoV infection so we hope that the person is not infected. No need to worry because the PUI has never left his/her home.)

However, Villa said that they will continue to monitor the PUI with the help of barangay health workers.  The PUI is almost able to complete the 14-day mandatory quarantine period.

If the person does not manifest 2019-nCoV symptoms at the end of the prescribed quarantine period, he/she will already be released from his/her home quarantine.

Meanwhile, Villa is asking Cebuanos to remain calm.

She assured the public that health personnel from the city’s 80 barangays are prepared to respond to cases of PUIs.

Villa said that the process of doing home quarantine is also safe for the family members of the PUIs.  People who are made to undergo home quarantine are those with asymptomatic cases and those without any travel history to China. / dcb