All 130 close contacts of the lone UK variant case of coronavirus in Ilocos Norte have already tested negative for the virus, Ilocos Norte health officials said.
The UK variant patient, known as “C-19-UK-1”, arrived in the country from Bahrain on January 23 and underwent a 14-day mandatory quarantine in a facility in Malate, Manila.
Dr. Norman Rabago, provincial health consultant, said the provincial government was able to trace and test all the people who came in contact with the 46-year-old-man who came back to Ilocos through a special health task force.
Rabago added that all of the patient’s primary and secondary generation contacts would also be released from the mandatory quarantine on Feb. 24.
Meanwhile, a 38-year-old man from Barangay Gabu Norte had tested positive for Covid-19. He was one of the identified third-generation contacts of C-19-UK-1.
“There is a low probability that the case could have been actually exposed to the UK variant case of the province,” Rabago said, noting that the contact’s specimen was still forwarded to the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) last week for further study on the presence of the new variant.
The result has yet to be released by PGC, Rabago said.
As of Feb. 23, the province reported that employees of a bank and the provincial capitol, a tricycle driver, and locally stranded individuals are the latest individuals to test positive from Covid-19.
Currently, the province recorded a total of 775 Covid-19 infections, with 30 of them being active. Ronald dela Cruz