Amid ongoing concerns surrounding the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, Bacolod City Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran discouraged the public from discriminating against Chinese and Korean nationals living in the city. According to a report published by the World Health Organization last Monday, China reported 8,774 confirmed cases, while another 4,212 were recorded in South Korea.
In a radio interview with Aksyon Radyo-Bacolod, the vice mayor, who chairs the Bacolod City Inter-Agency Task Force Against Novel Coronavirus, said a majority of Korean and Chinese nationals, particularly those studying in the city, arrived before news of the virus arose.
“It is wrong to discriminate against them,” he stated. “They are not new arrivals.”
Familiaran said he has received reports claiming newly-arrived foreign nationals in Bacolod City are being asked by neighbors to present health certificates.
Earlier, the Bacolod City Health Office (CHO) reported they are currently monitoring 20 new patients for Covid-19. CHO Environment and Sanitation Division chief, Dr. Grace Tan, said 13 of them recently arrived from South Korea; four originated from Malaysia; along with one patient each from Singapore, Japan, and Thailand.
The CHO official noted, all but one are Filipinos.
She added, the 20 are not confined to a hospital but are under self-quarantine at their respective homes and, pointed out, the city currently has no patients under investigation.
“We don’t need to admit them because they are just [undergoing] monitoring within 14 days from the day they arrived,” Tan explained.
She noted, the patients in question arrived between February 24 and 28./DGB, WDJ