Quezon City: UK variant patient’s contacts negative for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — All first generation contacts of the outbound overseas worker who contracted the more infectious United Kingdom variant of COVID-19 have tested negative for the viral illness, according to the Quezon City government.

Health officials have identified nine individuals who had direct contact with the 35-year-old male patient, who was earlier brought by his manning agency to a residential area in Quezon City without coordinating with local officials.

The patient has tested negative for COVID-19 but remains in isolation.

The nine contacts who tested negative included a man who lived in the same apartment as the patient, six staff at a quarantine hotel in Manila, the Grab driver who brought the man to the Quezon City apartment and a customer who hired the patient as a welder.

“The nine were negative after first batch of testing,” the city government said in an advisory in Filipino. “They will complete the 14-day quarantine despite the negative swab test.”

Meanwhile, two of the over 300 residents living in a 50-meter radius of the apartment tested positive for the virus. Both were asymptomatic and were brought to the quarantine facility operated by the city.

Members of their households have tested negative for the virus, but they were advised to complete the 14-day quarantine period.

The city government will submit the samples from those who tested positive for COVID-19 to the Philippine Genome Center to determine if they have the more infectious variant of the illness.

Mayor Joy Belmonte earlier said the city government would file a case against the manning agency that transferred the patient without coordination with local officials.