The Department of Health (DOH) announced they found another close contact of the first Filipino who got infected by the UK variant of the coronavirus after traveling to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Thursday.
Vergeire said during her interview with GMA that they are still searching for three close contacts out of the 213 close contacts.
“Ngayon tatlo na lang po ang hindi natin natutunton. Kagabi nahanap natin ‘yung isa uli. Tatlo na lang po. Dalawang taga-National Capital Region at saka isang taga-Region 7,” Vergeire said.
Earlier, the health department announced that 13 people connected to the initial case of the UK variant had already tested for Covid-19, as well as his eight co-passengers in a flight and five close contacts.
Samples from the five close contacts have already been transferred to the Philippine Genome Center for sequencing to know if they are also infected with the UK variant.
Vergeire added that new samples will be taken from the eight co-passengers for the same procedure.
“Ang kanila pong CT values are more than 30 kaya hindi po siya puwedeng ma-sequence at maisama doon sa pino-proseso natin. So they will be reswabbed,” she added.
The first patient arrived in the Philippines on board a flight from the UAE last January 7. He and his girlfriend visited the UAE for a business trip last December. Ronald Dela Cruz