NEGROS Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo has suspended classes in all public schools in the province from Feb. 5-7, 2020 due to the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) threat.
In an executive order issued Tuesday, Feb. 4, Degamo said this was “a precautionary measure to contain and mitigate the spread of the dreaded disease.”
The suspension of classes in private schools was left at the discretion of the different private school administrators.
The 2019-nCoV ARD has so far killed 425 people in China and infected more than 20,000 people. The Philippines has two positive cases, including one death.
The first confirmed case in the country involves a 38-year-old female from Wuhan, China who has been confined and isolated in San Lazaro Hospital in Manila. Her boyfriend, a 44-year-old Chinese national, was the country’s first fatality.
The couple traveled from China to Cebu and Dumaguete and then to Manila last January.
Dumaguete City is in Negros Oriental.
Authorities are now tracing those who may have come in contact with the couple while they were in Cebu and Dumaguete City. (LMY/ SunStar Philippines )