MANILA — THE  29-year old Chinese man who was among those being monitored for the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) died of complications due to pneumonia at 7 am Wednesday morning, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

“We have person under investigation (PUI). He died, but he is not confirmed for nCoV. He was admitted last Monday,” San Lazaro Hospital Director Edmundo Lopez during a press briefing in Quezon City.

“Early this morning around 7 a.m., we have a person under investigation, who was not confirmed for nCoV, has died. He was admitted last Monday,” Lopez said.

He pointed out that cause of death of the man Feom Yunna, China, is pneumonia. He said the patient was admitted to San Lazaro Hospital in Manila on Monday, January 27.

Upon admission, Lopez said, the patient was seen with various symptoms.  He had cervical lesions, lymph nodes. He also had lung findings..basically, the patient was thin, he also had  anal wart.

Lopez also said the patient “tested positive” twice for HIV during the initial and confirmatory tests.

Pressed to confirm if one of the patients under investigation (PUIs) had died at San Lazaro Hospital, Lopez said he was not yet a confirmed case of 2019-nCoV.

Lopez said the samples taken from the Chinese man were already sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa for an initial test for suspected novel coronavirus infection.

“Specimens have been taken. There are still tests in RITM) for detection of coronavirus,” he  said.

DOH Epidemiology Bureau chief Sr. Chito Avelino said Health 16 samples were sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and 6 to the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory for testing. He said it expected results by Thursday, January 30, or Friday, January 31.

By then, he said the RITM will be able to run tests confirming 2019-nCoV as they have acquired the necessary test kit for the process.

Four of the 27 patients under investigation were discharged and were no longer showing symptoms, but were still being closely monitored, the DOH added.

Health Secretary Franciso Duque III, meanwhile, renewed his call to the public  to practice proper hygiene and constant washing of hands, and proper coughing etiquette or coughing into the crook of the elbow, amid the virus scare.   He also reassured the public that DOH hospitals, with their respective isolation areas, were ready to respond to the disease, should it reach the Philippines.

He  said the Philippines is still monitoring 23 suspected cases of the novel virus  as 4 others have already tested negative and had been discharged from the hospital after they were cleared from of the virus.

He said the Philippines “cofirmed case is zero, which means the country  is still free from the virus that has claimed at least 132 lives and infected 5,974 people in China as of Wednesday.

Health authorities are monitoring 17 cases in National Capital Region (NCR), 1 in Western Visayas, 1 in Mimaropa, 1 in Eastern Visayas, 2 in Central Visayas and 1 in Davao Region.

Most of those being monitored had travel history to Wuhan, China and are mostly foreigners.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), according to the World Health Organization.

Meanwhile, Duque said the DOH  is initiating efforts to hasten the identification of test samples of suspected novel coronavirus with the purchase of a primer.

Duque said he was pissed off by waiting too long for the results of confirmatory tests for samples sent to Australia. (STACY  ANG/IAMIGO/CPH)

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