PH coronavirus watch: Suspected cases per region, as of March 17, 2020

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

The Department of Health (DOH) tracker showed that the government agency has conducted 1,030 tests as of 8:30 pm Tuesday, March 17. 

The tracker showed the following figures: 

• patients under investigation: 259
• patients under monitoring: 2,443

The tracker also reflected 187 confirmed cases.

It also showed that 163 are currently admitted to hospitals, 4 have recovered, while 14 have died.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency in the Philippines on March 9 due to the confirmation of local transmission of the virus.

The latest breakdown per region still only reflects 182 patients under investigation. All numbers are from the DOH’s nCoV tracker.

Since the outbreak began, at least 122 Filipinos outside the Philippines have contracted the virus.

These include 80 from a cruise ship docked in Japan, 9 in Singapore, 5 in Hong Kong, 4 in the United Arab Emirates, 2 in Lebanon, 19 from a luxury cruise ship docked in California, one Filipino diplomat at the United Nations in New York, one in France, and one in Switzerland. 

But 77 from the cruise ship in Japan, 2 in Singapore, one in France, 3 in Hong Kong have since recovered and have been discharged, leaving 39 still admitted and in isolation, according to the latest available DOH tally.

The World Health Organization on March 11 called the new coronavirus outbreak a pandemic and warned that the spread and severity of the illness was due to “alarming levels of inaction.”

The global death toll has reached 7,063, with 3,226 of the fatalities recorded in China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau). The number of cases worldwide has risen to 180,090, with more than 80,881 of the infections in China. The virus has spread to at least 145 countries. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com