DOH: Contact tracing ongoing after traveler from Philippines found to have new COVID-19 variant
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 1:07 p.m.) — The contact tracing of the people who might have come in contact with the Hong Kong resident who contracted the new and more contagious variant of COVID-19 is ongoing, the Department of Health said Wednesday.
In a statement late Wednesday, the DOH provided more details about the 30-year-old woman tagged as patient 9003 by Hong Kong authorities.
Citing a report from Hong Kong health officials, the DOH said the traveler was from Cagayan Valley who left the region on Dec. 17, 2020. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire confirmed in a message to reporters Thursday that the patient is a Filipina domestic worker.
She arrived in Metro Manila on Dec. 18 and “underwent quarantine as per their workplace protocol.”
The woman left for Hong Kong on December 22 via Philippine Airlines flight PR 300.
“The flight manifest has been obtained and the tracing of passengers is being conducted while we await updates on the contact tracing efforts done in Hong Kong,” the DOH said.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said there were 40 passengers onboard the flight.
“There is also ongoing contact tracing by the concerned epidemiology and surveillance units in Cagayan Valley region and NCR. They have been instructed to ensure strict quarantine of identified close contacts and for samples collected from said contacts to be sent for confirmatory testing and, if samples test positive, subsequent whole genome sequencing,”
Positive test 11 days after arrival
“On Jan. 2, 2021, she underwent RT-PCR testing again where the swabs tested positive and detected also to be positive for the UK variant,” the DOH said. This means the passenger tested positive 11 days after arriving in Hong Kong.
The woman “remains in isolation and in stable condition,” DOH said.
It is still unclear where the traveler caught the virus.
The presence of the new COVID-19 variant in a traveler from the Philippines raised concerns that the new variant, which experts say spreads faster than the others, may have already reached the country.
But local genomic researchers announced Wednesday that the variant that originated from the United Kingdom has not yet been detected in the country based on the analysis of 305 positive samples taken in November and December last year.
The DOH and experts called on Filipinos to remain vigilant and continue following minimum public health standards to cut the transmission of the variant and reduce the opportunities for virus mutation.
The Philippines has so far reported 480,737 COVID-19 cases, including 9,347 deaths. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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