Japanese with COVID-19 checked in at 3 hotels in Metro Manila — DOH’s Duque

A Japanese man traveled to the Philippines and had multiple check-ins at hotels in Metro Manila before testing positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Japan, the Department of Health confirmed on Friday.

At a press conference, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the 44-year-old foreigner was inside the Philippines from February 21 to 28.

"He stayed at three different hotels during his visit to Metro Manila," he said.

The onset of the Japanese national's cough was only on February 28 when he was already in Thailand and his fever started on February 29.

It was on March 4 that the patient tested positive for COVID-19 in Japan, according to Duque.

The DOH chief underscored that prior to visiting the Philippines, the foreigner also traveled to Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan.

"The extensive travel history of the patient suggests possible contraction of the disease in another country," he said.

Duque also confirmed that the Taiwanese man who got infected with COVID-19 likewise traveled to the Philippines.

However, like the Japanese national, it is also possible that the Taiwanese contracted the virus before visiting the Philippines, he added.

Meanwhile, the case of the Australian woman who tested positive for the virus after attending a wedding in Manila on February 13 and visiting Pangasinan on March 2 is still being studied by the DOH.

Health Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that contact tracing is ongoing for the people who might have had close interactions with the said three foreign nationals with COVID-19.

As of Friday, the Philippines has five confirmed cases of COVID-19. The first three were all Chinese tourists who visited the country in January. Two of whom have recovered while one died.

The fourth and fifth cases were both Filipino nationals who are now confined at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa. — RSJ, GMA News