The Pasay City government has started conducting a thorough contact tracing of 42 to 45 individuals who were exposed to the new South African variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano, in an interview with CNN, said the city government also conducted a re-swab testing on three individuals afflicted with the new variant based on the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH).
Rubiano said one of the three cases reported to have been afflicted with the South African variant yielded a negative test result for COVID-19 and is now recovering. She added that they are still waiting for the results of two others.
She said of the 42 to 45 individuals they have contact traced, two turned out positive, one of them a child.
The mayor said the three came from different barangays in the city and are currently being monitored.
Rubiano said the city has a total of 210 houses placed under localized community quarantine coming from 77 barangays.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Pasay is among four cities with an average increase in COVID-19 cases. The three other cities are Malabon, Navotas, and Makati.
Vergeire said they have collected specimens from the three individuals in Pasay City who were infected with the new variant.