Philippines Confirms 2 New Virus Cases, as Malaysian Cases Spike

The Philippines confirmed two more cases of the novel coronavirus Friday – the first detected there in 30 days – while neighboring Malaysia announced a giant leap of 28 new cases, with Malaysian health officials saying the situation was “still under control.”

The two new cases in the Philippines brought to five the number of cases detected in the country since the virus first broke out in China, and could potentially include the first case of a local transmission of the virus that causes the disease known as COVID-19, national health officials said.

The fourth case was a 48-year-old Filipino who had traveled to Japan, and suffered chills and fever days after returning home in late February, Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

The man sought medical help and tested positive for COVID-19. The patient was “currently stable” and being closely monitored at Manila’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, officials said.

“The fifth confirmed case is a 62-year-old male Filipino with no known hypertension and diabetes mellitus, who experienced cough with phlegm last February 25,” Duque said.

The man was known to have frequented a Muslim prayer hall housed at a shopping district in San Juan, a suburb of Manila, the Department of Health said.

“He also has no known history of travel outside the country,” Duque said.

Efforts were already underway to check all people who had been to the San Juan prayer hall over the past week, Duque said.

“How the fifth case got Covid-19, we really don’t know,” the secretary said. “That’s the reason we’re doing contact tracing to find out the source, if at all possible.”

The three previous cases in the Philippines all involved Chinese tourists. These included a 44-year-old man who died of COVID-19 last month – in the first death from the disease recorded outside China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

More than 95,000 cases have been confirmed and at least 3,200 people have died of the disease in nearly 90 countries, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO).

“These recent developments are significant, but we are prepared to respond to its potential consequences. Our priority is to protect our health workers and the most vulnerable populations,” Duque said.

Commenting on the latest development, Philippine presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo maintained that the central government was prepared to respond to the coronavirus threat.

“There is no need for alarm or worry because we are ready. From the very start we already said that,” Panelo told reporters, adding that protocols were already in place.

Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative in the Philippines, explained that “local transmission” was different from “community transmission.”

“Local transmission means transmission in a local geographical setting. Community transmission means widespread transmission beyond the defined geographical area,” he said.

A person infected with COVID-19 could pass on the virus to up to three people, Abeyasinghe said.

Cases shoot up in Malaysia

The 28 new cases announced in Malaysia on Friday brought to 54 the number of cases confirmed in the country since Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH). The total nationwide number stood at 83 cases, as of Friday.

Of the total, more than two dozen of the infected people belonged to a cluster linked to one patient, a 52-year-old Malaysian man who had visited China in mid-January, officials said.

“Based on the MoH assessment to date, the COVID-19 infection situation is still under control and is in the Early Containment phase,” Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement Friday.

“Accordingly, the public is requested to provide full cooperation to the MoH for the investigation, tracking of close contacts and treatment of patients.”

Meanwhile, authorities in Indonesia confirmed Friday that two new cases were detected, bringing the nationwide total to four in Southeast Asia’s most populous nation.

The two new patients were both Indonesians in their thirties living in the Jakarta area, health officials said.

The first person in Indonesia to have tested positive for the disease had attended a dance party at a Jakarta club, authorities said. A Japanese national, who had attended the same party, later tested positive for the illness after arriving in Malaysia, said Achmad Yurianto, the spokesman for the Indonesian government’s task force on COVID-19.

Huge economic losses projected

Meanwhile, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), in a report released Friday, said that developing Asian economies, including the Philippines, stood to lose much due to the viral outbreak.

In the Philippines alone, the ADB forecast that between 87,000 to 252,000 Filipinos in the sectors of travel, tourism, consumption and supply chains could lose their jobs as a result.

“Developing Asian economies such as Hong Kong, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam will be materially affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Many of these economies see a significant share of tourists from China and are affected through that channel as well,” the multilateral lending agency said.

The global economy could lose between U.S. $77 billion and $347 billion due to the virus, the bank reported. About two-thirds of the projected impact falls on China, where the virus originated.

“The magnitude of the economic impact will depend on how the outbreak evolves, which remains highly uncertain,” the ADB said.

Arief Rahmat in Kuala Lumpur, Tia Asmara in Jakarta, and Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato, Philippines, contributed to this report.