DOH locates 1 traveler from South Africa, 7 others remain missing

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday reported that they found one out of the eight missing travelers from South Africa.

“The located [returning overseas Filipino] is currently under home quarantine, with negative RT-PCR test, and no symptoms,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a statement.

With this development, the seven others who are all returning overseas Filipinos are yet to be found.

“As of December 6, 2021, there are 7 remaining unlocated travelers from South  Africa and all were returning overseas Filipinos,” the health official noted.

Three of the missing travelers did not provide their personal numbers, one gave an incorrect contact number, one provided an incomplete phone number, and two are unresponsive.

Vergeire earlier said that 253 travelers from South Africa have arrived in the country from November 15 to 29.

She recently appealed to the unlocated travelers to contact their respective DOH regional offices for them to be retested and to undergo necessary measures to prevent the possible spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

South Africa is among the countries banned from travel to the Philippines until December 15 amid the looming threat of the Omicron variant.

READ: PH suspends flights from S. Africa, Botswana amid fears on COVID-19 variant 

Other countries put on the ‘red’ list are Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy.

READ: PH bans inbound flights from 7 more countries to curb entry of Omicron variant

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