DOH says case of Filipina in Hong Kong with new COVID-19 variant 'closed'
MANILA, Philippines — The case of the overseas worker in Hong Kong who was found to have the more transmissible coronavirus variant is considered “closed” but it remains unclear where the woman caught the virus, the Department of Health said Friday.
This, after the more contagious COVID-19 variant was not detected among her close contacts in Cagayan province and in Metro Manila.
“That’s why the case was closed already,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.
Early in January, Hong Kong authorities reported that a resident who returned from Manila on December 22 tested positive for the more infectious coronavirus variant that was first seen in the United Kingdom. The 30-year-old worker tested positive 11 days after arriving in Hong Kong.
But Vergeire said authorities are still unsure where the Filipina got the new variant since they were not able to test all the passengers who had been on the same flight to Hong Kong as her.
She added that some of the samples of case’s contacts who tested positive had low viral load and could not checked by the Philippine Genome Center for the presence of the more contagious variant.
“So our safeguard is we quarantined all of these close contacts completely for 14 days. They were monitored properly,” the health official said.
Philippines authorities have since detected 17 cases of the new COVID-19 variant, which is found to be between 30% and 70% more contagious than other forms of the virus. Most of the cases are in Bontoc, Mountain Province.
Experts warned than an increase in the transmission of the new variant will lead to more people getting infected and sick, which can overwhelm the country’s health system anew. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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