Local health authorities have classified two more persons in Palawan as “persons under investigation” (PUI) for possible cases of COVID-19 infection.
The development brought to three the total number of individuals under the DOH’s watch list in the province.
Dr. Mario Baquilod, regional director of the DOH, said the two new PUIs had been placed in an isolation room in a government hospital in the city. Local authorities have yet to receive the result of the confirmatory test on the case of the first PUI patient recorded early in the week.
Dr. Melecio Dy, director of the Ospital ng Palawan (ONP), said the second PUI patient is a 23-year-old male from Rio Tuba, Bataraza who recently traveled to Pasig City. He was flagged as a PUI because of his local travel history, and after showing symptoms of cough and fever.
The third patient is a 30-year-old female Australian national, who travelled to Palawan as a tourist. She was categorized as a PUI based on her travel history and after contracting a fever.
“For now, stable naman ang mga PUIs natin. They were mostly categorized as PUI dahil sa kanilang travel history, but they are stable and not in distress. Nevertheless, we want to rule out COVID-19,” Dy said.
Test materials from the two new patients are to be sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), currently the country’s sole testing facility capable of COVID-19 detection.
