DOH: Contact tracing teams already deployed for four new COVID-19 cases

The Department of Health (DOH) has already deployed on Sunday additional teams to do contact tracing with regards to the four new COVID-19 cases in the country.

"Nakapag-deploy na kami ng additional teams kahapon para maisagawa natin nang agaran ang contact tracing dito sa apat na bagong kaso," DOH Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an interview on Dobol B sa News TV aired on GMA News TV.

The DOH on Sunday said the four new COVID-19 cases has brought the total in the country to 10.

The four new COVID-19 patients are:

• a 38-year-old Taiwanese male with a history of contact with another Taiwanese who tested positive for COVID-19 when he returned to Taiwan;
• a 32-year-old Filipino male with history of travel to Japan;
• an 86-year-old American male with history of travel to USA and South Korea; and
• a 57-year-old Filipino male with no history of travel but reportedly has had contact with a COVID-19-positive case. However, the DOH is still verifying this information.

Vergeire said all the four patients are admitted in private hospitals.

She also said the four cases have had no link to the previously confirmed COVID-19 cases: three Chinese nationals (one of whom died); a Filipino male with travel history to Japan and an employee of financial firm Deloitte Philippines; a Filipino male who frequented a prayer hall in Greenhills, San Juan City; and his wife.

Vergeire said the fourth to sixth cases are confined in referral hospitals of the government.

"'Yung fifth case, 62 years old, stable pero guarded ang condition. May ibang sakit na nagbibigay ng hirap," she added.

The 59-year-old wife of the fifth case is also in stable condition, Vergeire said.

Their children are under home quarantine but have not shown any symptoms, the DOH official said.

The seventh case is in stable condition, Vergeire said. 

As for the eighth case, the DOH official said there are symptoms being managed. —KG, GMA News