• March 06, 2020
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Philippines confirms first local infection of COVID-19

The Philippines has reported new cases of COVID-19 for the first time in weeks. These two cases bring up the number of total infections in the country to five.

According to Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the first new case involves a 48-year-old Filipino man who recently travelled to Japan, returning to the Philippines on 25 February. The patient experienced chills and developed fever on 3 March.

The second case, meanwhile, is a 62-year-old Filipino man. He is the first to catch the disease without having any history of travel outside the country. The second case is said to frequent a Muslim prayer hall in the city of San Juan, east of Manila.

Both have been hospitalised and stable. As of press time, the Philippines has over 600 patients under investigation for the novel coronavirus, most of which are located in Metro Manila.

Duque has noted that while this may be the first local case, there’s no proof yet of transmission. “The absence of travel is a clear indication that this is a local case. There is no transmission to speak of as of yet because we only have one. There should be clustering of cases. Premature to say there’s local transmission”, he said at a press conference.

Taiwan and Australia have already reported COVID-19 infections from patients with history of travel to the Philippines. An infected 30-year-old male in Taiwan travelled to the Philippines from 28 February to 3 March. In Australia, a woman in her 60s also tested positive for the novel coronavirus following a trip to the Philippines.