The Department of Health (DOH) said that the country’s fourth monkeypox case is now headed to recovery.

“Yung pasyente po natin na case number 4 yun pong kanyang mga lesions ay natutuyo na, so onwards to recovery na po yung case number 4 natin (The lesions of case number 4 are already drying up, so this person is onwards to recovery),” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire on Wednesday, Aug. 31.

The DOH also said “no additional rashes or symptoms have been observed” on the patient.

Of the 20 close contacts identified for the fourth case, four of them are still undergoing quarantine, one is doing self-monitoring, one is assisting the case “in the isolation facility whose quarantine will only start when the case is discharged from isolation,” while the 14 others have already finished quarantine, the DOH said.

Meanwhile, the DOH has yet to establish if the fourth case has got the monkeypox virus through local transmission.

“Hanggang sa ngayon, we cannot confirm kung local case na ba ito or hindi na imported case. We will be informing the public kung may makuha tayong impormasyon (Until now, we cannot confirm if this is a local case or not an imported case. We will be informing the public if we get any information),” said Vergeire.

“It’s not also right for the DOH to confirm already and announce that this is a local case since we cannot complete the history of the patient up until now,” she added.

Meanwhile, the second and third monkeypox cases are set to end their isolation on Wednesday, Aug. 31.

“While today is the expected end date of isolation of cases 2 and 3, we will still wait for their physician’s final assessment and clearance for discharge,” the DOH noted.

Vergeire said that the country’s confirmed monkeypox cases remain four.

“Wala pa tayong new detections base sa ating ginagawa na sample collection and testing (We still have no new detections based on our sample collection and testing),” she added.