PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur -- A 19-month old baby boy and four others have been identified as persons under monitoring (PUM) because of their recent travel to countries with positive cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus-acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV-ARD), an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said.
Wilfred Agtina, DOH Provincial Disease Surveillance Office chief, said Friday that four--including the infant--of the five PUM are residents of San Miguel town, one from Tabina, and another from Kumalarang town.
Agtina said the three residents of San Miguel town and the one from Kumalarang recently returned from a vacation in South Korea and Hongkong, respectively, while the one from Tabina works in China and is on vacation here.
The three countries have positive cases of the 2019-nCoV, with Wuhan City, Hubei province, China, as the epicenter of the disease.
Agtina said people with travel history from China or any of the affected areas may be asymptomatic of the disease as they may not have the symptoms yet at the time they were examined.
The incubation period of the 2019-nCoV, which has already claimed several lies, ranges from 10 to 14 days.
Agtina said all of the five PUMs are under home quarantine and are regularly monitored by the staff from their respective Rural Health Units (RHUs).
The PUM from Tabina is among the four PUM for 2019-nCoV in the region that was announced Thursday by the DOH regional office. With three from San Miguel and one from Kumalarang, the total of PUM for 2019-nCoV in the region is now stands at eight.
Meanwhile, Dr. Robert Capatoy, Provincial Health Board spokesperson, said the DOH has given the assurance that this province is still free of the 2019-nCoV.
However, Capatoy said the health agency is on alert and closely monitoring the possible entry of 2019-nCoV carriers.
He said they have established a quarantine area inside the provincial government center where to place a patient, should there be a positive case in this province. (PNA)
