PH coronavirus watch: Suspected cases per region, as of March 8, 2020

MANILA, Philippines – Health authorities continue to ramp up efforts to detect possible cases of the novel coronavirus in the Philippines.

As of Sunday, March 8, the Department of Health (DOH) said it has probed 700 patients. Out of this number:

• 48 – admitted to hospitals
• 646 – discharged from hospitals
• 6 – confirmed cases

Of the 6 confirmed cases in the Philippines:

• One Filipino visited Japan and returned to Manila on February 25
• One Filipino has no known travel history, the country’s first local transmission
• One Filipino is the wife of the patient with no known travel history
• One died due to severe pneumonia because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus
• Two have since recovered

President Rodrigo Duterte agreed to declare a state of public health emergency in the Philippines due to the confirmation of local transmission of the virus, upon the request of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. 

Below is the latest breakdown of patients under investigation per region. All numbers are from the DOH’s nCoV tracker.

Since the outbreak began, at least 88 Filipinos outside the Philippines have contracted the virus. These include 80 from a cruise ship docked in Japan, 3 in Singapore, 3 in Hong Kong, and 2 in the United Arab Emirates.

But 40 from the cruise ship, 1 in Singapore, and 2 in Hong Kong have since recovered, leaving 45 still infected as of Sunday.

The World Health Organization raised its global risk assessment of the virus to the maximum level. It earlier declared the outbreak an international emergency.

The global death toll has reached 3,583, with 3,097 of the fatalities in China. The number of cases worldwide has risen to 105,427, with 80,859 of the infections in China. The virus has spread to more than 90 countries. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com