ILOILO CITY – A returning overseas Filipino (ROF) here, who tested positive for the United Kingdom (UK) coronavirus (B.1.1.7) variant, has already tested negative for the virus.
In a press statement released by the Department of Health (DOH) on Friday, the 64-year-old ROF arrived in the Philippines on December 29, from Lebanon on board Philippine Airlines flight PR 8661.
She was isolated in Metro Manila, and was discharged on January 9.
In an interview over RMN Iloilo on Saturday, lawyer Suzette Mamon, provincial administrator of Iloilo, said the ROF arrived in Iloilo on January 10. She was allowed to go home after her second swab turned out negative.
From the airport, she was fetched by the ambulance of the municipality of Leon, and was immediately placed under facility quarantine.
She was swabbed three days after her arrival, and when the result turned negative, she was placed on strict home quarantine.
“Actually her movement was contained. She has no exposure because of the protocol that was followed according to our protocol at the provincial quarantine,” Mamon said.
The patient’s home quarantine is still ongoing, and is still under observation, she added.
The patient in the information put Iloilo City as her address. But instead of going home to her home address in the Jaro district, she went home to the municipality of Leon, where she has a daughter.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jane Juanico, head of the infectious disease cluster of the Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD6), in a phone interview, said the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) UK variant is “highly transmissible” yet there was no established information that it can increase the risk of a patient who will be affected.
“For the general public, the minimum health standards should be observed each time we go out of our homes to go to public places,” she said.
She said the wearing of mask and face shield, hand washing, and exercising infection prevention and control in houses must be undertaken.
They should also avoid unnecessary gatherings, especially if there are attendees who came from countries with reported cases of the UK COVID-19 variant, she said.
“This is not discriminating our ROFs but we need to ensure that their tests from Manila are negative and they should limit their activity here,” she added.