2 more UK variant cases traced in Mountain Province
BAGUIO CITY—The more contagious variant of the coronavirus disease was detected in another town in Mountain Province as Cordillera residents afflicted with the mutated virus rose to 25, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Friday.
Two cases of the B117 SARS-CoV-2 strain, also known as the UK variant, were recorded in Sabangan town, said Dr. Ruby Constantino, director of the DOH in the Cordillera.
One of the patients is considered an active case but was initially tagged as a Manila case until the DOH alerted its Cordillera office on Wednesday to launch contact tracing, Constantino said in a briefing here.
No other detail was released about the UK variant infections in Sabangan, a farming community with a population of less than 10,000.
The fifth-class community is 29 kilometers from Mountain Province’s capital town of Bontoc where most of the Cordillera’s first UK variant patients were located in January.
The previous cases have all since recovered from the disease.Four other UK variant cases, including the country’s lone B117 fatality, were recorded in La Trinidad town, Benguet province.
Isolated again
Early this week, Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong reported the first UK variant case in the city, which is adjacent to La Trinidad.
The 30-year-old woman was discharged and returned home before her genome test results revealed she was infected with the UK strain, Magalong said.
Geeny Ann Austria, DOH epidemiology surveillance unit nurse, said the woman had been isolated again, as well as the people with whom she had recent contact.
Austria said they were informed that the patient lives alone.
Health experts have yet to determine if the Baguio’s UK variant case has any connection to the same variant cases in Mountain Province and Benguet, Austria said in the same briefing.
Patients located
According to Constantino, most of the people who may have been exposed to the city’s variant case have been located and were required to undergo tests and to isolate for two weeks as a precaution.
To date, records from the DOH showed that 900 people who have had contact with all of the Cordillera’s UK variant patients were already located.
As of March 4, the Cordillera has recorded a total 15,348 COVID-19 infections, and 1,209 of them remain active cases.
Baguio still has the most number of active cases in the region with 445 patients.
Mountain Province has 199 active cases, while Benguet has 275. —VINCENT CABREZA
