CIDG chief says 102 co-passengers of nCoV cases already contacted

A total of 102 co-passengers of the Chinese couple who were infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus have already been contacted by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, its chief said on Monday.

According to Police Major General Joel Napoleon Coronel, the total number of passengers of the two local flights, which were Cebu to Dumaguete (DG 6519) and Dumaguete to Manila (PR 2542), was 192.

“We have accounted already a total of 102 out of the 193 passengers that we need to contact for the two flights...” Coronel told reporters.

“We are submitting the results of our efforts to the DOH (Department of Health) and the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) and hopefully with our contact tracing efforts, we were able to institute the necessary measures to assist those people,” he added.

Coronel said at least three passengers are being quarantined by the DOH for showing flu-like symptoms.

“Of the persons contacted by the CIDG, a total of three persons were brought by the DOH for possible examination if they have been infected with coronavirus. At present, they are being quarantined by DOH,” he said.

Coronel said the PNP-CIDG has tapped the Anti-Cybercrime Group to help them in contacting other passengers as some of them did not provide contact details.

He added that the police unit also reached the Bureau of Immigration for assistance.

“What we did was we tasked the anti-cybercrime group to help us to contact them. We have coordinated with the Bureau of Immigration, we forwarded the details to them hoping that they could provide us additional information and another is that we are coordinating with the DFA...” Coronel said.

The DOH earlier said more than 300 individuals in the country are under investigation for possible nCoV infection.

The heath agency also announced that the first confirmed case of nCoV in the Philippines, a 38-year-old Chinese woman, was already discharged from the hospital after testing negative for the virus twice.

Her partner, a 44-year-old Chinese national, died last February 1. — RSJ, GMA News