The Department of Health (DOH) is now recommending to repeat the RT-PCR test of individuals entering the Philippines on the fifth day of their arrival from abroad.
“Sa ganitong paraan, maaari po nating makita and appropriate ‘yung timing ng testing and we can be more certain kung talagang negatibo o positibo itong pasyente na ating itinest (In this way, the timing of testing is appropriate and we can be more certain if the patient tested is really negative or positive),” DOH USec. Maria Rosario Vergeire explained.
The DOH also emphasized the completion of 14-day quarantine despite testing negative in the second test, saying that the repeat test is “just another screening.”
As of January 21, 14 of the 213 contacts of the country’s first patient of COVID-19 carrying the UK variant have tested positive for COVID-19. Four of them who were also passengers of the flight carrying the first case initially tested negative for the disease.
The DOH said the three co-passengers might have acquired the virus from Dubai since they were not sitting closely with the index case.
Meanwhile, the Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of Quezon City said they are now probing how the mother of the first UK variant case acquired COVID-19 “since the index case never set foot at home or in the community and did not have any interaction with her after arriving in the Philippines from Dubai on January 7.”
The result of the genome sequencing for the samples of contacts who tested positive have yet to be released. Three passengers from the flight are still being searched by authorities, including two from the National Capital Region (NCR) and one from Region 7. – Report from Mark Fetalco
