The 86-year-old man who had the most recent samples taken for suspected coronavirus was in a community center for the elderly, confirmed the Department of Health and central government authorities.
“Indeed, since we have already learned the Department of Health and the epidemiologist have been in direct contact with the people who resided or reside with this priest. We are giving him follow-up and monitoring,” said Public Affairs Secretary Osvaldo. Soto, at a press conference.
Health indicated that This is a missionary priest who has no history of travel outside of Puerto Rico, but who presents a clinical picture of severity in which he has given all medical tests that have been taken to identify his condition negative.
“It’s piped,” the secretary added. “The Department of Health and epidemiologists have been in direct contact with the people who reside with this priest,” he continued.
The president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Víctor Ramos, told The new day that in this case the Office of Health Biosecurity must begin a daily monitoring of the people with whom the man had contact.
“This patient has been one of the cases that, given the severity of his current condition and after taking into consideration the medical criteria, it has been determined that we will be doing the coronavirus tests, since it complies with the most recent provisions of the CDC to these cases. They indicate that, those in which hospitalization is required and tests for other respiratory conditions have obtained a negative result, the coronavirus test could be considered, so we have already started this process, “stated the Secretary of Health. Rafael Rodríguez in a press release.
The octogenarian became the second local suspected case of coronavirus. The other resident of Puerto Rico, with no travel history, is a 71-year-old cancer patient who remains in the intensive unit of the Auxilio Mutuo hospital in San Juan.
The other three suspect cases are an Italian marriage that arrived on a cruise ship on Sunday at the port of San Juan and a California cruise ship who was taken by the Coast Guard to a Mayaguez hospital.
Evidence of all suspected cases were sent to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States.
For its part, the state epidemiologist, Carmen Deseda, indicated that “it is expected” that new suspicious cases of this disease arise due to the flexibility of the evaluation criteria of the patients.
“We will proceed to take a sample of each case that is necessary to do the proper tests without delay. The most important thing at this time is to ensure the common well-being and health of each patient,” said the official.
Meanwhile, The government of Panama reported last night that a 59-year-old man identified as the case number six confirmed positive with coronavirus in this country recently traveled to Puerto Rico and New York.
The detail of the contacts this patient had both on the island and in the United States is unknown.
“We will be contacting all the forums to the government of Panama to know what was the path of this man on the island,” said Soto.
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