COVID-19 variant patient now asymptomatic

MANILA, Philippines — The 29-year-old man from Barangay Kamuning in Quezon City who was infected with the more contagious variant of COVID-19 that first emerged in the United Kingdom is now asymptomatic, Mayor Joy Belmonte said yesterday.

“The patient is actually doing quite well and he is already asymptomatic. He has no other symptoms,” she said in English and Filipino at a Laging Handa press briefing aired over PTV-4.

The patient, who has the B-117 SARS-CoV-2 or the UK variant, is confined in a quarantine facility and not in a hospital, Belmonte added.

The local chief executive said the latest prognosis on the patient proves that while the UK variant of the COVID-19 is more contagious, its effect is not as severe as the original strain of the virus.

“While data show that his variant is more contagious, and that is actually what we are preparing for, the effect is not as severe and milder than the original COVID-19 virus,” she said.

The patient’s girlfriend, who accompanied him to Dubai for a business meeting, is also doing well at the quarantine facility.

The local government has traced a total of 143 individuals who were close and secondary contacts of the patient, including seven of the eight persons who were with him on an Emirates flight which arrived on Jan. 7, members of the barangay health emergency response team of Barangay Kamuning and the staff at the isolation facility where the patient is currently staying.

All were isolated from the community and underwent swab testing.

As a precautionary measure, the mayor said the relatives of the patient also underwent testing even if he did not have any contact with them since he arrived.

Belmonte said they are having difficulty locating the last passenger who gave wrong contact details on the flight manifest.

“Except for the one individual missing, all of the others have been swabbed and isolated,” she said. “We are at the moment trying to get more complete details of this individual.”

Meanwhile, Belmonte reiterated her appeal not to discriminate residents of Kamuning as she explained that the patient never set foot in the barangay when he arrived in the country.

She lamented that there are residents of Kamuning who were not allowed to go to work by their employers for fear of contracting the virus.

The city government has set aside P1 billion for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines. – Janvic Mateo