THE Quezon City resident who became the country’s first UK COVID-19 variant case has recovered, latest lab test indicated.
However he remains at the quarantine facility where he is kept under observation by doctors who will decide when he should be discharged, according to Dr. Rolly Cruz, head of the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) of Quezon City.
Monitoring of the patient — who remains unnamed — will continue for two weeks.
The 29-year-old patient had tested positive for the more infectious variant of COVID-19 which first emerged in the United Kingdom upon his return from Dubai with his girlfriend on January 7,
The positive result of the mandatory testing was confirmed by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) and he was immediately isolated.
The patient’s girlfriend and his mother as well as 14 of the COVID variant case’s co-plane passengers have tested positive for COVID-19 and are now under observation for possible new strain infection.
In another development, the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) has approved a recommendation from the Department of Health to subject to a fifth-day coronavirus testing of travelers arriving in the Philippines, an added precaution against a new, more contagious COVID-19 variant, Malacañang said on Friday.
Travelers coming from 34 countries covered by travel restrictions against the new variant are required to take a coronavirus test upon arrival in the Philippines, said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
They will be quarantined until they get the result of another coronavirus test that they will take on the fifth day of their stay in the country, he said on a government-run television program.
The DOH noted that the contacts of the country’s first patient with the new COVID-19 variant tested positive for the virus days after they tested negative upon arrival in Manila, hence its recommendation for the additional testing requirement.
