Coronavirus cases in Philippines now at 24

MANILA, Philippines (3rd update; First published at 5:06 p.m.) — President Rodrigo Duterte announced on Monday night that there are four more confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, raising the official count to 24.

The areas West Crame in San Juan, Project 6 in Quezon City and Sta. Maria in Bulacan have one confirmed case each, the president said. He failed to disclose where the fourth new case was detected or located.

The president also suspended classes in Metro Manila from March 10, Tuesday to March 14, Saturday. "Tingnan natin incubation period," he said, referring to the supposed time the virus can live on surfaces and latch on to a human carrier.

Before Duterte's announcement, the number of patients doubled from 10 to 20 on the same day as the Department of Health received results of tests positive for the deadly disease.

Health Assistant Secretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire said that information on the places of residence and whereabouts of cases 11 to 20 was still being gathered. She said the sudden spike in cases was a result of the newly-declared localized transmission. 

According to Vergeire, the department still has no information on how the new cases were "epidemiologically linked" to previously confirmed patients. 

The DOH reportedly received the new confirmed results "before lunch" on Monday and was already conducting contact tracing on the new cases.

Because local transmission has now been declared by the health department, the virus is now officially spreading among Filipinos on Filipino soil.

"Case #5 is the very reason we called it localized transmission," Vergeire said. 

Vergeire also said that the newfound cases were due to more stringent surveillance measures on the part of the DOH. 

"Yung biglang pagdami ng kaso ay dahil sa maigting na surveillance na ginagawa natin ngayon... if you may observe, some of these cases had histories of travel," she said.

LOOK: @DOHgovph shows a matrix with the summary of new #COVID19 confirmed cases in the Philippines, from case 7 to 20. pic.twitter.com/yR7Zd0nb9s

— World Health Organization Philippines (@WHOPhilippines) March 9, 2020

No community transmission

The DOH was careful to point out that they were not declaring community-based transmission yet despite the influx of cases. 

Community-based transmission is hoisted when a person who has been diagnosed with the disease despite not being in a high-risk area is known to have been in contact with any other confirmed cases. 

Because they do not fall under the department's screening tool, this indicates that the virus was transmitted to them in the community and it is unclear where they would have contracted it.

"The mean determinant para masabing may community transmission ka kapag ang mga kaso mo ay hindi na linked to each other," the DOH official added.

The Health department also urged the public to stay away from public, crowded places and mass gatherings. 

The DOH assured the public that government hospitals have isolation rooms, although the department said it would be shifting towards home quarantine in combating the spread of the virus. 

Public health emergency

Earlier that day, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation 922 declaring a state of public health emergency throughout the country amid the worsening scare surrounding the new virus. 

“However, once there is sustained community transmission - or an increasing number of local cases whose links cannot be established - the strategy will be shifted from an intensive contact tracing to the implementation of community-level quarantine (or lockdown), and/or possibly, suspension of work or school," the Health department said in a statement on Saturday.

"These will be implemented in municipal, city, or provincial scale as may be warranted. Augmentation of health staff from unaffected areas and uniformed personnel will also be facilitated.”

On Saturday, the DOH confirmed local transmission of the virus in the country after the first three cases were tagged as imported cases. 

The DOH on Monday evening also sent the details of the patients to reporters. 

The matrix is as follows:

COMPLETE LIST: Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines

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