Less than 1% of over 8,000 COVID-19 cases in PH are foreigners —DOH

Less than one percent of the over 8,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Philippines are foreign nationals, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.

In a virtual briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the latest number is at 70.

"Sa ngayon, batay sa datos namin. Mayroon tayong 70 na foreign nationals na nagkaroon ng sakit, nag-test positive dito sa atin sa Pilipinas," Vergeire said.

"Out of this 70, 24 sa kanila ay Chinese," she added.

Vergeire said many of the COVID-19 cases among Chinese nationals were reported during the onset of the outbreak.

"Noong mga umpisang mga kaso dito talaga tumala nang marami itong mga Chinese na nationals na nagkakapositibong kaso dito sa Pilipinas," she said.

The first three confirmed cases of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines were all Chinese nationals with travel history in China's Wuhan City—the area where the novel coronavirus was first detected.

There had been recent proposals to allow Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) —mostly employing Chinese nationals—to resume work in a bid to generate government income amid the health crisis.

The said move has been countered by several lawmakers who pointed out health risks as these employees usually work in enclosed areas and are residing in high rise condominiums.

Meanwhile, Vergeire said that the gene sequencing studies of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and the Philippine Genome Center are ongoing to determine the origin of the COVID-19 strain that is present in the Philippines—whether it came from Wuhan or other territories.

The DOH's epidemiology bureau will also release an analysis on the clustering of cases to complement the said studies.—AOL, GMA News