PH coronavirus watch: Suspected cases per region, as of March 9, 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's (DOH) tracker showed that at least 706 patients have been probed as of  9:30 am Monday, March 9.

Out of this number:

The tracker also reflected only 10 confirmed cases, but by Monday afternoon, DOH announced 10 more cases.

Of the 20 confirmed cases, 17 are currently admitted to hospitals, two have been discharged, and one has died.

Upon the request of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, 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.

Below is the latest breakdown of patients under investigation per region. All numbers are from the DOH's nCoV tracker. This story will be updated once DOH updates its tracker.

Since the outbreak began, at least 91 Filipinos outside the Philippines have contracted the virus. These include 80 from a cruise ship docked in Japan, 3 in Singapore, 4 in Hong Kong, 2 in the United Arab Emirates, and 2 in Lebanon.

But 40 from the cruise ship, 1 in Singapore, and 2 in Hong Kong have since recovered, leaving 48 still infected as of Monday.

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 3,819, with 3,119 of the fatalities in China. The number of cases worldwide has risen to 109,946, with 80,735 of the infections in China. The virus has spread to at least 99 countries. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com