The Department of Health has confirmed the first case of local transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Philippines.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque said that the wife of the 62-year-old man who tested positive for the virus also got infected and therefore the 6th coronavirus case in the country.
The health department also raised the alert level to Code Red (Sub-Level 1), which means all hospital personnel need to report for duty in their respective facilities to provide medical services.
The DOH is also recommending to President Rodrigo Duterte to declare a state of public health emergency.
“The DOH is currently exhausting all efforts to ensure that this localized transmission does not progress to community transmission,” Duque said in a media briefing.
Duque added that RITM with WHO capacitating San Lazaro, Lung Center, Baguio Gen, Vicente Sotto (Visayas), Southern PH Medical Center, UP-NIH for testing of suspected COVID-19 cases.
