(Eagle News) – The Department of Health is now awaiting the results of the confirmatory tests on a Chinese national confined at the San Lazaro Hospital, considered a patient under investigation (PUI) for novel coronavirus infection, who died on Thursday, Jan. 29, for pneumonia.
The DOH said that the 29-year old man who came from Yunnan province was also HIV positive upon testing, but that a confirmatory test on this too is necessary.
San Lazaro Hospital director Edmundo Lopez said that the results for confirmatory tests from Australia might come in a few days.
He said the patient was admitted on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020.
Specimens have been taken to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and to Australia for confirmatory tests.
Lopez said the patient was already thin when he came to the hospital, and had cervical lesions or “kulani.”
“He was tested for HIV, so sa screening test, positive siya. So for confirmation siya. Twice testing already,” the San Lazaro hospital director said in a press briefing of the DOH on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
“Ang cause of death is pneumonia,” Lopez said.
As of Wednesday, there were 23 persons still considered under investigation for 2019 nCoV, as four were already released or discharged after confirmatory results showed they were negative of the disease.
They include two other patients at the San Lazaro Hospital — a couple who came from Wuhan, the epicenter of the deadly virus epidemic.
But this still did not include three patients alleged to have shown 2019-nCoV symptoms and admitted in a hospital in Baguio City.
DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Wednesday that the country was still nCoV-free. There are still no confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus strain.
(Eagle News Service)
