LGUs, hospitals adopt ways to detect n-CoV
Credit to Author: Cris Diaz| Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2020 17:18:52 +0000
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Misamis Oriental: Local government unit (LGU) and health officials in this port capital of Northern Mindanao have adopted ways to prevent the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) in the region.
Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano said the provincial government was acquiring thermal scanners for distribution to various ports of entries in Misamis Oriental.
He added that the scanners would be handed out to the airport terminal in Laguindingan and to the Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) Tagolo-an.
Emano said vessels from the Mediterranean that anchor off Macabalan Bay would not exempted from thermal scanning to make sure that passengers on board do not show symptoms of the 2019-nCoV virus.
According to Emano, the port area in Macabalan, Cagayan de Oro City, will also benefit from the thermal scanners because the area is the entry port of passengers in Misamis Oriental.
The government-owned Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) at the provincial capitol compound has also activated an “emergency assistance desk” to check patients who enter the hospital premises.
Dr. Jose Chan, the NMMC medical director, said health personnel man the desk 24/7 to conduct medical check-ups on patients who are suspected of having contracted the coronavirus and other illnesses.
“There is nothing to panic about the 2019-nCoV since the number of Chinese patients under investigation (PUI) at the NMMC [remained at two],” according to Chan.
He said that the two Chinese were admitted last week after showing symptoms of the coronavirus.
Chan added that the hospital is yet to receive results of the tests on the two PUI.
In Cagayan de Oro City, the LGU officials have activated the Barangay Emergency Response Health Team (BERHT) as part of the protocol to gather information about the possible entry of 2019-nCoV into the villages.
City Councilor Maria Lourdes Gaane, chairman of the City Council Committee on Health and Insurance, said members of the Berth and barangay (village) health workers conduct regular checks on residents arriving from abroad.
Gaane, herself a doctor, added that the Berth report is based on two criteria: “symptomatic or displaying no symptoms, which means that the person has no fever and no other signs and symptoms suggesting illness.”
The first reported 2019-nCoV death in the country was that of a 38-year-old male patient who came to the Philippines last January 21, from Wu Han, China, the source of the nCoV.
It was the first death outside China.