Passengers walk past a thermal scanner at the medical quarantine area at the arrival section at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Paranaque. (AP)
MANILA, Philippines – The Filipina flight attendant who put herself in “self-quarantine” after she arrived in the country from Wuhan, a Chinese city that is considered the center of coronavirus outbreak, is “recovering quite well,” the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.
“The patient does not have any more fever. She’s recovering quite well but she’s still under monitoring just to check if it’s coronavirus,” Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.
The flight attendant, who arrived Tuesday to Kalibo International Airport, showed symptoms of coronavirus infection.
“We took some samples and we are having them tested right now,” Domingo said.
Wuhan is the epicenter of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV, which had claimed the lives of 17 people and affected 547 others in China. Similar cases have been reported in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand.
Domingo advised those who exhibit symptoms of the coronavirus, including fever, cough, colds, and sore throat, especially if they have come from affected countries, to have themselves checked in hospitals.
On Wednesday, Hongkong authorities reportedly said that four family members of a Chinese man from Wuhan who tested positive for novel coronavirus have traveled to Manila aboard Cebu Pacific flight 5J111.
The Cebu Pacific Air, in a statement, said all passengers and crew of the said flight were screened by the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) upon arrival in Manila but none were held for further observation.
Domingo said the BOQ, an agency under the jurisdiction of the DOH, is ensuring that everyone undergoes the screening process.
Records show that on the said flight, no one exhibited symptoms of the coronavirus, he said.
“We don’t know then when they found out that the family members got to the Philippines. So by the time we knew about it they were already here. But like I said everybody coming from China goes to the screening process and we make sure that everybody who comes in is healthy at the time of entry,” said Domingo.
Meanwhile, Domingo said the DOH is now requiring airlines to compile complete identification, contact details, and seat numbers of passengers “so that if we identify, for example, a suspected case we can contact them and look for them but at the same time all the passengers surrounding them.”