(Eagle News)–The five-year-old boy who arrived from Wuhan, China, in Cebu has tested negative for the 2019 novel coronavirus.
This was according to the Department of Health, which made the announcement on Friday, Jan. 24, following the release of the results of the tests on the child’s oropharyngeal and serum specimens.
The tests were conducted at the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia.
The DOH said the child had yielded “a positive result for the pancoronavirus assay.”
“This is indeed very welcome news to ease the Filipinos’ growing concern,” the Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
“I assure everyone that your (DOH) will not stop here and is on top of this emerging health event. We will continue to monitor the developing situation and ensure mechanisms to contain the threat of the 2019-nCoV,” he added.
On Friday, Jan. 24, the DOH said it was monitoring a man who worked in Wuhan, the seat of the outbreak, and arrived in Tacloban on Jan. 12 exhibiting respiratory infection symptoms.
Several deaths from the new coronavirus, which causes pneumonia, have been reported.
Cases were recorded in Taiwan, Thailand, the US, Japan, among others.