Bohol Island News Staff | Posted on March 17, 2020
The Department of Health Center for Health Development in Region 7 (DOH-CHD 7) reported only 164 persons under monitoring in Bohol province alone.
In a media briefing done on Tuesday afternoon, Dr. Jaime Bernadas, regional director of DOH-CHD 7, revealed that the reason for the recent spike in the number of PUMs in the region is their influenza-like illnesses (ILI) surveillance.
Bernadas explained that they have included those with minor symptoms similar to influenza in their surveillance to allay the fears of the public.
Influenza, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the US, is most commonly known as flu. It is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses.
CDC says people with flu often have the following symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, and fatigue. Children with flu also expriences diarrhea and vomiting.
In Region 7, DOH-CHD 7 has tallied a total of 76 ILIs with severe conditions admitted in the hospitals.
Bernadas further explained that these are also persons under investigation (PUIs).
“Some of them may not have history of travels to areas with positive cases. Some of them may not have history of contact with positive Covid-19 cases. But just the same having explained the similar symptoms with acute resporatory symptoms, we considered them and tried to get the specimen in our RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine),” Bernadas said.
Those with mild conditions, he added, were advised to undergo home quarantine.
This is the reason why there are a total of 726 persons under monitoring (PUMs) in the entire region.
The bulk of these PUMs are in Negros Oriental at 391; Bohol with 164; Cebu with 50 (31 home quarantine; 19 facility quarantine); Siquijor with 4; Cebu City with 40; Lapu-Lapu City with 41; and Mandaue City with 36.
There are a total of 707 on home quarantine and 19 are admitted at the facility.
Testing kits available?
Meanwhile, DOH-CHD 7 is still waiting for the arrival of the 500 plus testing kits that they will officially use at their identified subnational laboratory at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
Bernadas said this is just the initial amount they requested.
