DOH still tracking down 3 co-passengers of Covid-19 variant patient

 (INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON / file photo)

MANILA, Philippines — The remaining three co-passengers of the 29-year-old Filipino with the more infectious Covid-19 variant have yet to be located by the contact tracing team, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday. 

Health Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said the three passengers, two from Metro Manila and one from Central Visayas, are giving the contact tracing team a hard time as they did not disclose their contact numbers in the flight manifest.

They also only listed down their hometowns and not their exact address. 

“Sa ngayon po out of these [passengers] na na-identify natin, three na lang po ang natitira. We are left with just three na ngayon po ay pinipilit ng ating contact tracing team, together with PNP and the team of Mayor [Benjamin] Magalong na mahanap po natin,” she said on ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo. 

(Right now, we are just looking for three more passengers. Our contact tracing team together with the Philippine National Police and the team from Mayor Magalong are exerting efforts to locate them.)

Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / EDWIN BACASMAS)

Emirates Flight EK 332, which carried the patient and 159 other passengers from the United Arab Emirates, arrived in the Philippines on January 7.

Vergeire said some of the passengers who had provided incomplete details in their flight manifest were located through the help of the police. 

“Naipagtanong tanong nila (police) sa area and they were able to locate some of the people we are trying to find, pero itong tatlo po talaga ay giving us a hard time,” she said. 

(They were able to ask from other residents the location of some of the people we were trying to locate, but these three are really giving us a hard time.)

According to Vergeire, some passengers may be afraid to coordinate to authorities for fear of being discriminated in their communities.

She said the PNP already has “leads” on the location of the three remaining passengers. 

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old male patient who is currently undergoing strict quarantine in Quezon City no longer has symptoms of Covid-19. Vergeire said the patient will be tested again for the disease this Thursday. 

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