6 close contacts of Filipino patient with UK Covid-19 variant who are from C. Visayas test negative

CEBU CITY, Philippines–All six passengers from Central Visayas, who happened to be close contacts of the first Filipino patient confirmed to have the mutated variant of the new coronavirus, tested negative of the infection, the regional health office here announced.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), confirmed in a text message to reporters on Thursday, January 21, 2021, that six passengers of Emirates Flight EK 332 are from Central Visayas.

Loreche said two of them have addresses in Bohol and Cebu province while the others are from Negros Oriental, and Consolacion town, which is also in Cebu province.

A 29-year-old man who traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and arrived in Manila last January 7 via Emirates Flight EK 332, became the first documented patient to have contracted the new variant of the virus in the Philippines.

Read: UK Covid-19 variant detected in PH

Loreche added that all six co-passengers from Central Visayas already tested negative of the most infectious variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and will end their quarantine on January 23, 2021.

“All (tested) negative. They are quarantined and will end their quarantine period on the 23rd (of January),” she said.

The DOH-7 official, however, did not mention where the six passengers are being quarantined.

DOH’s central office on Wednesday, January 20, announced that 13 people had so far tested positive for coronavirus disease after being exposed to the patient.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, earlier in a press briefing, said the patient’s mother, girlfriend, and 8 co-passengers, as well as a healthcare worker who transported the index case in an isolation facility, have all tested positive for Covid-19.

/bmjo

READ MORE: DOH: UK variant patient’s contacts who test positive for coronavirus now at 13