The husband of the country’s fourth Omicron case was found positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday, Dec. 28.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the individual is currently in isolation.
“We have already traced the contacts of this person. Her family, for one. Her husband turned positive also. He is currently in the isolation facility, and then close contacts at home are all isolated,” said Vergeire in an interview with CNN Philippines.
In a separate message to reporters, Vergeire said that his positive sample “will be processed now for sequencing” to determine if he also carries the Omicron variant.
The DOH Spokesperson said that they are also tracing the contacts of the fourth Omicron case inside the plane.
“The manifest is with us already, we are just trying to determine who among these passengers were within close contact with this individual,” she said.
“We are going to apply the epidemiological definition of close contacts in terms of riding a plane---that would be four seats in front, four seats beside, and four seats at the back,” she added.
On Monday, Dec. 27, Vergeire said that the fourth Omicron case—a 38-year-old woman— arrived on Dec. 10 via Philippine Airlines flight PR 127. She was quarantined upon arrival in the Philippines.
On Dec.13, she experienced throat itchiness and colds. Vergeire said that her specimen was collected on Dec. 14 and her test result came out positive on Dec. 15.
She was discharged on Dec. 24 and was sent home to complete her isolation. She is currently asymptomatic and is still in isolation.