1st Filipina domestic worker with COVID-19 now discharged
Hospital Authority in Hong Kong. Photo taken by TKStevens from Wikimedia commons.
The first Filipina domestic worker who tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been released from the hospital, the Philippine Consulate General said on March 6.
“She is healthy and has since returned to her employer’s home,” Consul General Raly Tejada said.
The 32-year-old Filipina domestic helper tested positive for COVID-19 on Feb.18.
Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection said in a press conference on Feb. 18 that the Filipina domestic helper could have been infected with the virus at home.
The domestic helper’s employer is the 52nd case of COVID-19 infection in Hong Kong. The 67-year-old woman had dinner at the Star Seafood Restaurant in North Point with four others on Jan.26. They all tested positive for COVID-19.
Chuang said the 32-year-old domestic worker tested negative initially but a successive CT scan of her lungs showed that she was infected with COVID-19.
“Concerning the foreign maid, the first test was negative. When the first specimen is taken, it’s quite sometime after the patient’s onset but it may also be due to the specimen taken,” she said.
The domestic helper lives at Mount Parker Lodge in Quarry Bay with her employer.
Tejada said the two other Filipina domestic workers who contracted the disease “remain healthy and asymptomatic.”