DOH denies Korean in Bacolod City tested positive for Mers

Immigration personnel at Mactan Cebu International Airport wears protective mask following the reported Mers-Cov virus in South Korea. CDN/TONEE DESPOJO

Health officials denied Thursday the Korean student quarantined in Bacolod City has tested positive for the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).

“There is no confirmed case as of this time in the Philippines,” Department of Health spokesman Lyndon Lee Suy told Radyo Inquirer.

The Korean, who arrived in Bacolod City on June 26, has been under quarantine at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital.

Dr. Carmela Gensoli, officer-in-charge of the Bacolod City Health Office, told Inquirer Visayas the result of the throat swabbing test conducted on the Korean would be released by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City by Thursday afternoon.

Gensoli said Wednesday night the patient had no more fever, which she said was “a good sign.”

Rumors spread on the social media Thursday morning that the Korean has tested positive for the deadly disease.

Mers has killed 24 people and sickened more than 160 people in South Korea, the biggest outbreak outside the Middle East where it was first seen in 2012.  With reports from Carla Gomez, Inquirer Visayas; Donabelle Dominguez, Radyo Inquirer