MANILA, 26 April 2003 — Fear became grim reality for the Philippines yesterday when it confirmed its first two deaths from SARS and said two other people were infected with the virus.
Health authorities said they also intercepted at the airport a Japanese tourist and a Filipino maid coming home from Singapore yesterday, who were found ill with fever. They were taken to a government hospital for suspected SARS patients.
The country of 82 million people had been hoping several probable cases would turn out negative and that its precautions would keep out the flu-like virus that has killed 264 people worldwide and infected more than 4,600.
To deal with the crisis, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced sweeping anti-SARS measures, giving the health secretary power to mobilize the police and military to impose quarantines.
“The state has the intrinsic duty and right to protect the common good,” said at a news conference, hours after Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit announced the country was no longer free of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
“Health quarantines against SARS are intended to insulate the larger public welfare against ... a dreaded disease. Let us not make this a human rights issue,” Arroyo said. “We shall balance strict sanctions against humane measures. We are all in this together and we will pull through this crisis together.”
Arroyo designated Dayrit the “SARS czar,” whose job is to “contain, control, prevent and restrict” the virus’ spread, and set aside a 1 billion peso (US$18.7 million) emergency fund.
She directed Dayrit and Interior Secretary Jose Lina to lead a nationwide anti-SARS “awareness and cleanup campaign,” and authorized the education secretary to suspend classes and use schools as emergency quarantine facilities.
Under the new measures, police can use checkpoints to prevent movement in or out of quarantined areas.
The Department of Trade and Industry was ordered to prevent profiteering on anti-SARS paraphernalia such as masks, following reports of rising prices.
Dayrit said the autopsy on the father of Adela Catalon, a Filipino nursing assistant who died of SARS on April 14, showed he also died of the flu-like illness. Adela was visiting her hometown Alcala in Pangasinan from Toronto, Canada, one of the hardest hit by SARS.
Other cases included a foreign businessman who was hospitalized but recovered after showing SARS-like symptoms, and a 45-year-old worker from Hong Kong who returned to her home province here, Dayrit said.
“All in all, we already have four documented SARS cases in the country. Three of them came from abroad, while one is local transmission,” Dayrit said.
A German man who traveled frequently to the Philippines from Hong Kong and a Filipino domestic helper who returned from Hong Kong on April 10 were infected, he added.
Hundreds of people in Vacante, Catalon’s home village on Luzon island, were quarantined as the government waited for tests to confirm whether she died of SARS.
The cases were previously designated “suspected” and “probable” SARS.
But Dayrit, who had insisted for weeks that the Philippines was officially SARS-free, said yesterday the earlier classifications has been dropped to end public confusion.
Another suspected SARS case — an X-ray technician who attended to the nurse in a government hospital — is recovering and is being treated for typhoid and bacterial pneumonia, Dayrit said. A health official said the technician was not likely a SARS victim.
In Tacloban City in the Central Philippines, a 47-year-old woman announced to be the country’s newest SARS case was admitted under heavy guard to the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) late yesterday.
At least eight policemen escorted the ambulance that took the woman and a team from the Department of Health-Eastern Visayas to the hospital.
The woman, who was wearing a surgical mask, sat at the back of the ambulance and did not appear weak. Her husband, who sat on the front seat, had agreed to be quarantined with her.
The confirmed cases could deal a heavy blow to a cash-strapped nation that relies on billions of dollars sent home every year by more than seven million nurses, domestic helpers, engineers and other Filipinos working overseas.
About 153,000 of them work in Hong Kong and at least 100,000 in Singapore — two of the worst-hit areas for SARS and both a short flight from Manila.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday filed a diplomatic protest against Libya for banning the entry of Filipino workers on concerns over the SARS.
Foreign Secretary Blas Ople summoned Libya’s ambassador to the Philippines, Salem Adam, to hand over a note decrying the ban, noting that SARS cases in the country were “extremely isolated”.
Ople said he already asked health officials to brief the diplomatic community on the true situation of SARS in the country.
The Philippines also filed a diplomatic protest against Turkey, which issued a travel ban against the Philippines due to SARS.
“Our policy is to protest any actions by countries that will issue an advisory against Filipinos because of SARS,” Ople said.
Ambassador Adam said that his country would soon lift the ban after getting a report on the full situation of SARS in the Philippines. He said the ban was a precautionary measure imposed on 25 countries and that it was “only for a couple of days ... to make sure there are no serious problems.”
Foreign Undersecretary Jose Brillantes said Manila deployed about 6,000 contract workers a year to Libya and getting the ban on workers lifted was “important to the Philippine government.”
Turkish Ambassador Tanju Sumer acknowledged that the travel advisory against the Philippines “was a mistake on our part and we will re-assess and correct it in a very short time.” (Agencies)
