Mom, girlfriend of new variant carrier test positive for COVID virus

The mother and girlfriend of the Filipino real estate agent who has contracted the UK variant of the new coronavirus in the United Arab Emirates have been found positive for the COVID-19 agent after second tests, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told an online briefing that the results of the tests had been sent to the Philippine Genome Center for sequen­cing to determine if the mother and the girlfriend were also infected with the coronavirus variant.

The first tests of the mother and the girlfriend had turned out negative.

Ten other people who had come in close contact with the real estate agent had also tes­ted positive, the DOH said. They were also passengers on the Emirates flight that brought the Filipino home to Manila earlier this month.

All are in isolation centers and are in stable condition, the DOH said.

Not all with UK variant

The DOH said it was uncertain whether the new ca­ses were infected with the UK variant. It said determination would come when the genome center returned the tests.

On Wednesday, the DOH reported 1,862 additional coronavirus infections, raising the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country to 505,939.

The DOH said 765 more patients had recovered, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 466,993. But the death toll rose to 10,042 with the deaths of 64 more patients.

The deaths and recoveries left the country with 28,904 active cases, of which 84.9 percent were mild, 7.5 percent asymptomatic, 0.5 percent mo­derate, 2.6 percent severe, and 4.5 percent critical. —PATRICIA DENISE M. CHIU