By HENRY EMPEÑO | 

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — A total of 16 persons under investigation (PUI’s) have been reported in the Zambales-Olongapo City area, including the Subic Bay Freeport, since the global virus outbreak early last month, according to authorities as of Wednesday.

The reports, which were posted on social media, indicated 11 PUI’s in Zambales as of March 16, with 3 being discharged after testing negative for possible Covid-19 infection.

The province has also reported a total of 1,570 persons under monitoring (PUM’s), the Zambales Provincial health Office said.

In Olongapo, three PUI’s have been reported as of March 16, with two testing negative, while two were reported in the Subic Bay Freeport as of March 18, with one negative result.

So far, none of the PUI’s has tested positive, the reports also indicated.

The latest PUI was reported by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) on Wednesday.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma identified the second PUI as a 50-year old who travelled to Manila last week.

The patient is currently in an intensive care unit (ICU), has fever, but is reported to be stable, she added.

Eisma said, however, that there was also good news from Subic as the first PUI here, a Briton who had checked in at a local hotel early this month, has already tested negative for the disease.

The first PUI, who recovered after confinement at the Medical City in the nearby Clark Freeport, had a history of recent travel in the United Kingdom. He developed symptoms like fever, cough, colds and diarrhea while in the Subic hotel.

With the surfacing of a second PUI, Eisma urged all Subic Freeport stakeholders to stay at home and heed the government’s enhanced community quarantine protocols.

“I beg each and every one of you, please stay at home. Covid is highly contagious and can cause death,” the SBMA chief said in a social media post.

“Between the hospitals at the Subic Bay Freeport and Olongapo City, we have only around 20 isolation rooms. The reality is we do not have enough resources to handle a contagion of any magnitude,” Eisma emphasized.

The SBMA had earlier shut down most of its offices in compliance with Malacañang’s declaration of enhanced quarantine all over Luzon starting Tuesday. The only offices that are fully operational are the agency’s Public Health and Safety Department, Law Enforcement Department, Fire Department, and Maintenance and Transportation Department.

Meanwhile the SBMA maintains 18 other offices operate with skeletal force, while10 others were totally shuttered to minimize person-to-person contacts in the Subic Bay area, Eisma said.

The SBMA had also announced on Tuesday the suspension of mass public transport operations; prohibition of mass gatherings like tourism and sports events; restriction of private business operations except for those providing basic necessities and such activities related to food and medicine production; and prohibition of dine-in in restaurants.

However, the SBMA said that business process outsourcing establishments and export-oriented industries shall remain operational, provided that strict social distancing measures are observed and that their respective personnel shall be given appropriate temporary accommodation arrangements by March 18, 2020.

The SBMA also required full operations by vital businesses like public utilities, including power, water and telecommunication; banks, money transfer service and related financial services; groceries, convenience stores, supermarkets, and wet markets; pharmacies and drugstores; hardware stores and construction supplies; and gas stations.

TOP PHOTO: Members of the SBMA Fire Department spray disinfecting agents in the premises of a hotel in the Subic Bay Freeport on Tuesday, March 17, as the Subic agency conducted decontamination-disinfection procedures in areas frequented by the public (Photo by Jun Dumaguing)