The Department of Health (DOH) has not yet detected other cases of the United Kingdom variant of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country.
The RT-PCR test results of some of the contacts of the first UK variant case have yet to be released. A total of 214 contacts have been identified, including six from the household, 49 health staff, and 159 other passengers of Flight EK 332.
Seven passengers from the said flight have yet to be identified. The family members of the first case and the health personnel he had contact with have been under isolation and are not showing symptoms.
The United Arab Emirates where the first case came from has not been covered by restricted travel before the detection of the UK variant in the Philippines.
“Kapag ikaw ay nag-test negative na (Once you test negative), you can be allowed to go home and do your quarantine at home. So ganyan ‘yung nangyari riyan sa mga pasahero ng Emirates flight na yan (That is what happened to the passengers of the Emirates flight),” DOH USec. Maria Rosario Vergeire explained.
“But just to let you know, in a matter of days, we were able to contact all of them, except for seven persons na talagang ‘yung address and even ‘yung contact numbers ay hindi talaga namin mahanap (except for seven persons whose addresses and contact numbers cannot be found),” Vergeire added.
The genome sequencing result of the contacts who tested positive for COVID-19 are expected to be released on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. This is part of the surveillance to prevent further transmission of the virus.
On January 17, the COVID-19 cases in the country surpassed 500,000 count after more than 2,000 daily cases were reported in the past days. Vergeire pointed out that the increase in cases compared to December is recorded outside Mega Manila, including Cebu.
According to the OCTA Research Group, the nationwide reproduction number of COVID-19 has reached 1.25 which indicates faster transmission of the disease.
Prof. Guido David cited that the reproduction number is high due to the faster transmission in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Isabela, Davao, and Cebu.
The group forecasted the cases in the country may reach 530,000 by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anna Ong-Lim of the Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against Covid-19 made it clear that the problem does not end with the acquisition of vaccines, saying that “the higher the reproduction number, the higher the number of people that we need to immunize to achieve herd immunity.” – Report from Mark Fetalco
