Last Thursday, the first case of the novel coronavirus infection in the Philippines was confirmed by the Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III through a press conference. According to the report of INQUIRER.net, the patient is identified as a 38-year-old Chinese student who traveled to the country from Wuhan, China, via Hong Kong on January 21.
Because of this, some online users can’t help but compare the recent outbreak to the 2011 thriller movie, Contagion. Starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, and Jude Law, the story is about the lethal microbe that infected Paltrow’s character, Beth Emhoff after she visited Hong Kong for a business trip. When she returned to Minnesota, she exhibited symptoms like heavy cough and flu—leading to a global pandemic virus and killing millions of people around the world.
Here are some of the Twitter users’ reactions to the striking and eerie similarities between the 2011 film and the real-life cases of coronavirus:
https://twitter.com/ibcig/status/1221262373492674560?s=20
https://twitter.com/BeingMonk/status/1223146098677747712?s=20
https://twitter.com/maXes_MB/status/1222868302738919425?s=20
#Contagion movie a model of what is happening in the world today from the spread of infection of the #coronavirus, as if the story itself 🤔😦 pic.twitter.com/QH2HkRScOw
— Azer Belarbi 🌐 (@azerbelarbii) January 31, 2020
As of this writing, “Contagion” has become the most-searched keyword in Google among Filipino online users in the past week. Among the regions where it is popularly searched include Davao Region, Western Visayas, Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and Central Visayas.
via Google Trends
Hence, the general public is highly recommended to follow safe food practices and hand and respiratory hygiene to reduce the transmission of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
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