The Department of Health is contacting the last four of the 414 passengers who have not yet reached out to the inter-agency Task Force Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) or have been traced by authorities, a senior health official said Friday.
In an interview, Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, spokesman for Task Force MERS-CoV, said the task force is “in the process of initiating contacts with the four passengers following receipt of their contact data.”
He refused to say where they got the contact details of the four passengers.
But Lee Suy said the receipt of the contact details is a positive development. “At least now, we have details to start working on. Yesterday, we had nothing at all on the four. Nothing.”
Following his exposure to the Filipino paramedic who died from MERS early April, the male nurse had undergone laboratory tests but returned to the Philippines without waiting for the results of the exams.
The male nurse was “isolated” via confinement in a government hospital, while his family and those who fetched him at the airport were quarantined. They were all subsequently discharged from hospitals following negative results of their exams.
PHL ‘cannot be complacent’
Lee Suy, also the program manager of the DOH unit on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases, said as of 12 noon Friday, the Philippines is still “MERS-CoV free.”
He added though that the Philippines “cannot be complacent in dealing with the MERS-CoV or with the threats of other infectious diseases.”
The Task Force on MERS-CoV has adopted the “no regrets policy” in combating the MERS-CoV threats.
“No country can question how the Philippines is responding presently to the MERS-CoV threat,” Lee Suy said in an earlier interview.
Also on Friday, Lee Suy reiterated Aquino’s order for all government agencies concerned to come up with a “more concrete, more detailed, and more comprehensive response to emerging infectious diseases.”
Aquino hopes to see a strong multi-agency initiative in the government’s approach to infectious diseases.
Lee Suy said the threat of MERS-CoV does not end with the testing of the Etihad passengers, adding there needs to be constant vigilance.
The health department has set up the following hotlines for any queries or information from the public: 711-1001 to 02, 0922-8841564, 0920-9498419 and 0915-7725621. —KG, GMA News
