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DOH confirms community transmission of COVID-19 in Philippines

Franco Luna - Philstar.com
DOH confirms community transmission of COVID-19 in Philippines
Passengers of a jeepney in Manila are seen wearing face masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus.
Miguel De Guzman, Michael Varcas

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed that community transmission of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Philippines has already happened.

Community-based transmission is declared when a person is diagnosed with the disease despite not having been to a high-risk area and not having been in contact with any other confirmed cases.

As of Monday night, the Department of Health had tallied 140 patients who had tested positive for COVID-19.

READ: Philippines reports new COVID-19 recovery as cases rise to 142

When the first three cases of the virus were confirmed in late January, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III was careful to point out that all the patients had travel history to Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak.

Thus, he said, the three patients were classified as "imported cases" or cases where the patients were infected abroad and not locally. 

When local transmission was declared by the Health department earlier this week, this indicated that the virus was spreading among Filipinos on Philippine soil but that contact tracing was still possible as authorities are still able to track a clear trail of the spread of the 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 DOH said in a statement on Saturday

Mainland Luzon is under an enhanced community quarantine until midnight of April 13, meaning strict home quarantine in all households as well as the suspension of transportation.

This is a developing story and will be updated. 

If you believe you have come into possible contact with infected patients, you may be directed to the proper office of the Department of Health for advice through the following lines: (632) 8651-7800 local 5003-5004 or (632) 165-364.

You may also opt to call the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine at (02) 8807-2631/ 8807-2632/ 8807-2637.

vuukle comment

COVID-19

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

HEALTH SECRETARY FRANCISCO DUQUE III

NOVEL CORONAVIRUS

As It Happens
LATEST UPDATE: October 1, 2023 - 2:35pm

Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.

October 1, 2023 - 2:35pm

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.

Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.

The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP

August 18, 2023 - 4:25pm

The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown. 

The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday. 

So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP

August 11, 2023 - 7:07pm

The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".

The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.

In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP

June 24, 2023 - 11:50am

The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.

In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.

Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP 

June 15, 2023 - 5:42pm

Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.

The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".

But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.

In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.

He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".

Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP

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