Chinese experts to visit COVID-19 referral hospitals, quarantine facilities -DOH exec

The Chinese medical experts who recently arrived in the country will be visiting health care facilities that are accommodating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday.

"Sila ay pupunta sa Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine General Hospital, pati po sa San Lazaro Hospital at gayundin po sa RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine)," Vergeire said in a virtual press briefing.

"Pupunta rin po sila sa ating community quarantine facilities para makita kung paano natin ipapatupad ang community quarantine procedures po natin," she added.

Their recommendations could be used in the country's policy direction regarding the health emergency, according to Vergeire.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has earlier explained that these foreign experts will not be directly attending to COVID-19 patients but would be consulted regarding best practices in dealing with the health crisis, especially in case management.

China was the first country to be hit by the contagion, which later on was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global pandemic.

Based on WHO data as of April 5, China recorded a total of 82,930 cases with 3,338 deaths. The country has emerged from its two-month containment phase and is now in the mitigation stage.

The Philippines, on the other hand, has recorded 3,246 cases of COVID-19, with 153 deaths and 64 recoveries as of April 5, according to the DOH. Duque said it is still premature to say if the local number of cases already peaked. --KBK, GMA News