MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health is allegedly monitoring eight persons for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the country, a number that went down from 11 last weekend, ranking department officials on Monday said.

The number allegedly went down to eight as the three were already discharged from hospital confinement as they turned out negative of the virus DOH director for Epidemiology Bureau Ferchito Avelino said including the five-year-old Chinese boy in Cebu City whose confirmatory tests were brought to Melbourne, Australia.

The other two cases were also released after they tested negative from tests conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said two of the remaining PUIs (persons under investigation) are in Metro Manila.

These include a 78-year-old man being observed at a hospital in Muntinlupa City, and a 44-year-old man in Pasay City; 10-year-old girl in Palawan, another three in Aklan (a 32-year-old female, a six-year-old boy and a 24-year-old woman) Duque said.

In Tacloban, there is also a 36-year-old PUI male patient and a 29-year-old man in Camiguin in Northern Mindanao, the Health secretary added.

In all, Duque said, there have already been a total of 39 novel coronavirus-related events have been reported in the Philippines but none of them have been confirmed cases of the new virus.

“There shouldn’t be any cause for alarm. Just because we flashed the areas where the PUIs come from, it doesn’t mean that those areas are infected with novel coronavirus. Because there is none (infected), we keep harping the fact that there is none. It is still zero as of today (Jan. 27),” he said.

Duque also appealed to the public especially those active in social media to stop spreading “infodemic” of false information, said Duque. “The virus of miscommunication or false information.”

“(It) can be more viral than the virus we are guarding against,” Duque said. (Ismael Amigo/CPH)