Philippines' 1st COVID-19 transmission case is in critical condition

The Philippines' fifth confirmed case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the very first case of local transmission of the deadly virus is in a "critical condition," the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday.

This was confirmed by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in a text message to GMA News Online.

Duque said the 62-year-old Filipino male has "several underlying medical conditions" prior to contracting the COVID-19 infection.

For her part, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) Director Celia Carlos said the elderly is in a "guarded condition" as he still has "severe pneumonia, plus other medical problems like diabetes, hypertension and we recently identified another problem which is acute kidney injury which may be due to multiple factors present in the patient."

"On the other hand, his oxygen requirement is less, and the need for drugs to elevate his blood pressure is also less... So there are good developments, as well as bad developments," Carlos said in a press conference.

Duque, however, said that based on the experience, the clinical conditions of severe cases as reported in China, "it takes [a] very long time for them to recover from three to six weeks, when critical.”

He also confirmed that the fifth case of COVID-19 is the first case of local transmission in the country after verification from the Bureau of Immigration showed that the patient had no recent travel history.

Also, the DOH also confirmed a new case of COVID-19 in the country, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to six.

The sixth confirmed case of COVID-19 is a 59-year-old female, the wife of the 62-year-old man who had no travel history abroad but has frequently visited a Muslim prayer hall and has hypertension and diabetes. —LBG, GMA News