A health care worker prepares the COVID-19 test kit of a patient. Photo by Jay Ganzon / OVP
MANILA, Philippines — COVID-19 is feared to have spread in a call center in Metro Manila where the father of a nine-year-old child infected with the Delta variant works, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said Wednesday.
San Juan City confirmed the Delta variant was detected in two individuals residing in its city — a nine-year-old male and a 25-year-old female. Both of them have since recovered after undergoing a 14-day quarantine.
“Yung 25-year-old at tatay ng 9 years old ay magkatrabaho sa isang call center, sa ibang lungsod dito sa Metro Manila. Nalaman namin yung call center na yun, nasa ibang lungsod dito sa Metro Manila, marami doon sa mga empleyado nila ay nagkahawa hawa po,” Zamora said in an interview with Teleradyo.
(The 25-year-old and the father of the nine-year-old work at a call center in another city in Metro Manila. We found out that many of the employees of the call center were already infected with COVID-19.)
Zamora did not identify the city where the call center was located nor the number of employees already found positive for COVID-19.
“Inireport na namin sa DOH [Department of Health], sila ngayon ay nagcoconduct ng kanilang coordination sa LGU kung saan po ang call center na ito upang gawan ng tamang aksyon,” he said.
(We reported this to the DOH and they are now coordinating with the LGU where the call center is to do the proper actions.)
Zamora said both parents of the nine-year-old patient had also contracted COVID-19 — the father was symptomatic while the mother remained asymptomatic. Whether the child’s parents were also cases of the Delta variant, Zamora said they did not know.
“Pwedeng Delta variant din siya (father). Pero dahil hindi siya na-genome sequencing we have no ways to determine. Ang genome sequencing po kasi, hindi yan lahat. Hindi lahat ng nag popositive ay gini-genome sequencing, yan po ay random sampling,” Zamora said.
(The father may be a Delta variant case. But since he did not undergo genome sequencing, we have no ways to determine. Not everyone undergoes genome sequencing. Not everyone who tests positive undergoes genome sequencing, it’s random sampling.)
San Juan City has since began another round of contact tracing and COVID-19 testing, Zamora assured.