PH coronavirus watch: Suspected cases per region, as of March 18, 2020

MANILA, Philippines – Health authorities continue to ramp up efforts to detect possible cases of the novel coronavirus in the Philippines.

The Department of Health (DOH) tracker still showed that the government agency has conducted 1,030 tests as of 8:30 pm Wednesday, March 18. 

The tracker showed the following figures: 

• patients under investigation: 338
  
• patients under monitoring: 2,825
  

The tracker reflected 202 confirmed cases. It also showed that 171 are currently admitted to hospitals, 7 have recovered, and 17 have died.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency in the Philippines on March 9 due to the confirmation of local transmission of the virus.

The latest breakdown per region still reflects 183 patients under investigation. All numbers are from the DOH’s nCoV tracker.

Since the outbreak began, at least 126 Filipinos outside the Philippines have contracted the virus. Below is the breakdown:

• Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan – 80
• Grand Princess cruise ship in California – 19
• Singapore – 11
• Hong Kong – 5
• United Arab Emirates – 5
• Lebanon – 2
• France – 1
• Switzerland – 1
• Greece – 1
• United Nations in New York City – 1

Of the 126 Filipinos, at least 83 have recovered: 77 from the cruise ship in Japan, 3 in Hong Kong, 2 in Singapore, and 1 in France.

The World Health Organization on March 11 called the new coronavirus outbreak a pandemic and warned that the spread and severity of the illness was due to “alarming levels of inaction.”

The global death toll, meanwhile, has reached 7,873, with 3,237 of the fatalities in China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau). The number of cases worldwide has risen to 194,000, with more than 80,894 of the infections in China. The virus has spread to at least 150 countries. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com