4 of 8 PUIs for possible nCoV in Dumaguete test negative in swab test

Half of the eight persons under investigation (PUI) in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental tested negative for novel coronavirus in the initial swab test conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

A report by Ian Cruz in Unang Balita on Friday, citing the Negros Oriental Provincial Health Office, said three of those who tested negative had direct contact with the infected Chinese couple who travelled to the area before being hospitalized in Manila.

Meanwhile, one PUI who tested negative had travel history in Hong Kong.

Despite the good news, the four will have to undergo another round of swab tests to ascertain that they are really cleared from the virus before being discharged.

The other four PUIs are still awaiting laboratory results.

The first two cases of novel coronavirus infection in the Philippines were two Chinese tourists who travelled from Hong Kong to Cebu and Dumaguete on January 21.

One of them died on Saturday and became the first fatal case outside China where over 600 had already died and 28,000 others got infected by the virus.

The tourism industry in Dumaguete and other parts of Negros Oriental also received a heavy blow from the novel coronavirus threat as the national government banned the entry of visitors from China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

The livelihood of van drivers at Dumaguete Airport was affected because of diminished tourist arrival.

Yet the local government said that protecting the public from the novel coronavirus is more important "because once health suffers, the economy collapses." —Dona Magsino/KBK, GMA News