DUMAGUETE CITY – Individuals who were in contact with the female Chinese tourist who tested positive for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) are on self-quarantine, the provincial government of Negros Oriental said Friday.

The Chinese woman who tested positive for the new coronavirus – the Philippines’ first case – reportedly visited Dumaguete City and the town of Dauin in the province before she was quarantined in a hospital in Manila. 

“Sa ngayon nasa bahay lang sila and tomorrow, the Department of Health and the Provincial Health Office will go to them and evaluate,” Provincial Health Office Assistant Officer Dr. Liland Estacion told reporters.

(For now they are just at home and tomorrow, the Department of Health and the Provincial Health Office will go to them and evaluate.)

Health Officials are also trying to trace places where the Chinese patient visited during her stay in Negros Oriental, its governor Roel Degamo said.

He said the provincial government is set to temporarily ban Chinese nationals from entering the province to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the outbreak of which began in Wuhan, China.

The vice governor, who heads the provincial council, is supportive of the ban and the provincial government is now studying how the travel ban against Chinese nationals will affect the province’s tourism industry and economy, he said.

At least 200 people have died from the respiratory disease, while nearly 10,000 others have been infected worldwide.

The Philippines has banned travel to and from Hubei province in eastern China, where Wuhan is located. 

The national government earlier said it has been monitoring 31 other suspected cases of the novel coronavirus in the country.

– report from Martian Muyco, ABS-CBN News