CEBU CITY, Philippines – There is only one person being probed for the coronavirus in Cebu as of Tuesday, March 17, according to the Department of Health Central Visayas.


The person under investigation (PUI) is confined in a hospital in Mandaue City, which had 37 PUIs on Thursday, March 12. (READ: 37 persons under investigation in  Mandaue City)  

The number of PUIs across Central Visayas has gone down fom 52 to 11 in a span of one week, regional health officials said.

One was discharged, while a PUI in Cebu died while waiting for her test results. (READ: Woman waiting for coronavirus test results dies in Cebu City)

The other 10 PUIs are in Negros Oriental, where a patient died on Sunday, March 15. 



DOH Central Visayas Director Dr Jaime Bernadas said that the PUIs, as based on an expanded definition of the term, showed flu-like symptoms.

“Some of them may not have history of travels to areas with positive cases. Some of them may not have history of contact with positive COVID cases,” Bernadas said. 


There are a total of 726 patients under monitoring (PUMs) in Central Visayas, or persons who have come back from areas where there are COVID-19 cases, but are not showing symptoms. 

Many of these PUMs were among those who rushed home after Metro Manila was placed on lockdown on Sunday, March 15.

On March 17, the whole island of Luzon was placed on lockdown to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Philippines has 193 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday, with 14 deaths and 7 recoveries.

Globally, there are more than 175,000 cases, with over 7,000 deaths across 145 countries.



Cebu City is under community quarantine. Residents are asked to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel. Sea trips into the island have been suspended and a curfew was imposed.

The Department of Health reminded the public to constantly wash their hands, cover coughs properly, and practice social distancing. – with reports from John Tan Sitchon/Rappler.com