MANILA, Philippines — Twenty-two among the 25 patients in the country who were infected with the more transmisible UK variant of the new coronavirus have recovered, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.
Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that of the 25 patients, only two remain as active cases while another patient has died.
“As to these 25 cases detected with the UK variant, we have two remaining active cases, we have one who died, and the rest, the 22 have already recovered,” Vergeire said in an online press briefing.
Vergeire said the lone fatality is an 84-year-old man from La Trinidad, Benguet. He was earlier reported to have died last January 24.
“Hindi pa nakuha ‘yung ibang detalye but apparently noong kausap namin ‘yung regional office namin, they said that this person never went out, seldom, pero nandoon lang daw sa loob ng bahay, walang ibang contact,” Vergeire said of the fatality.
(We have not received further details but according to our regional office, this person apparently never or seldom went out of his house and did not have any other contacts.)
According to Vergeire, samples from 720 Covid-19 positive patients are also scheduled to undergo genome sequencing within this week to determine if they are infected with other variants of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.