Following the news of the man who has tested positive with the new UK Covid-19 variant, the Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed that the girlfriend and mother of the said patient have both tested positive as well.
The DOH has reported the first new variant case as a 29-year old male hailing from Quezon City who flew to Dubai on the 27th of December and returned to the country on the 7th of January.
His girlfriend, who travelled with him, first tested negative but a re-swab yielded a positive result while the mother already came out positive with the first swab. Both test results are currently being validated to check for the new variant.
When asked why the girlfriend tested negative on the first swab test, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stated that most likely, the virus was still intubating during the time of her initial swab. Vergeire further stated that this is why timing is an essential factor when giving the test.
Apart from the patient’s girlfriend and mother, there were nine other contacts who came out positive. Eight of these were also passengers of the same flight which returned to Manila on the 7th of January.
The samples of all eight passengers have already been forwarded for genome sequencing.
Moreover, of all the passengers on board the Emirates Airline Flight No. EK 332, 153 have been successfully contacted and are already isolated and re-tested for COVID. Efforts to contact the remaining six are also currently underway.
