MANILA, Philippines — The case of the abroad employee in Hong Kong who was discovered to have the extra transmissible coronavirus variant is taken into account “closed” however it stays unclear the place the girl caught the virus, the Division of Well being stated Friday.
This, after the extra contagious COVID-19 variant was not detected amongst her shut contacts in Cagayan province and in Metro Manila.
“That’s why the case was closed already,” Well being Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stated in a briefing.
Early in January, Hong Kong authorities reported {that a} resident who returned from Manila on December 22 examined optimistic for the extra infectious coronavirus variant that was first seen in the UK. The 30-year-old employee examined optimistic 11 days after arriving in Hong Kong.
However Vergeire stated authorities are nonetheless not sure the place the Filipina acquired the brand new variant since they weren’t capable of check all of the passengers who had been on the identical flight to Hong Kong as her.
She added that a number of the samples of case’s contacts who examined optimistic had low viral load and couldn’t checked by the Philippine Genome Heart for the presence of the extra contagious variant.
“So our safeguard is we quarantined all of those shut contacts fully for 14 days. They have been monitored correctly,” the well being official stated.
Philippines authorities have since detected 17 circumstances of the brand new COVID-19 variant, which is discovered to be between 30% and 70% extra contagious than different types of the virus. A lot of the circumstances are in Bontoc, Mountain Province.
Specialists warned than a rise within the transmission of the brand new variant will result in extra individuals getting contaminated and sick, which might overwhelm the nation’s well being system anew. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
