92% of COVID-19 variant patient’s co-passengers already contacted — DOH

MANILA, Philippines — Authorities have already traced and contacted 92 percent of passengers who arrived in the Philippines via Emirates flight EK 332 on January 7 together with the 29-year-old Filipino who tested positive for the new COVID-19 variant.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday said that the flight carried 159 other passengers, excluding the male patient.

“Out of the 159, we were already able to coordinate with 146 of them. So 92 percent po ‘yan (So that is 92 percent),” she said in an online press briefing.

Vergeire, however, said the remaining 13 passengers are rejecting or not responding to calls from the contact tracing team.

“Doon sa 146, meron na tayong 125 na may positive na na aksyon tayong ginawa because they were able to continuously coordinate with us,” Vergeire also said.

(Out of the 146, we have made positive actions on the 125 because they were able to continuously coordinate with us.)

She said some of the passengers are now in quarantine facilities of their respective local government units, while some were allowed to undergo home quarantine because the conditions of their residences meet the requirements for isolation.

All of the passengers who were already contacted were subjected to swab tests.

According to Vergeire, their specimen will also undergo genome sequencing to identify if they are infected with the new and more infectious COVID-19 variant that was first detected in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old male patient, a resident of Quezon City, is also undergoing strict quarantine.

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