The Department of Health (DOH) said that the Philippines’ first BA.2.12 Omicron subvariant case had 44 close contacts.

The 52-year-old Finnish woman had nine close contacts in Quezon City, five in Benguet, and 30 while she was onboard a plane going to Manila, said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Thursday, April 28.

Vergeire said that they are currently monitoring the health status of the people who came in close contact with the Omicron subvariant case.

“She had nine close contacts in Quezon City, she also had five close contacts in Benguet—and all of them are being closely monitored. Some of them were tested already which turned out to be negative,” said Vergeire during an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

“We got the manifesto already from the airplane. We had our contact tracing already. She had a total of 30 close contacts, near contacts in the airplane. We were able to try to see the vaccination status of these contacts and most of them are fully vaccinated. Some of them were tested and turned out negative,” she added.

Vergeire noted that “all of them are being closely monitored and nobody is experiencing symptoms as of this time.”

The DOH said that the Finnish woman had arrived in the Philippines last April 2 and conducted seminars in a university in Quezon City and went to Baguio. She completed her isolation period and was already tagged as recovered. The patient returned to her home country on April 21.

Where did she get infected?

Vergeire said they are looking at three possible scenarios where the Finnish woman got infected with this Omicron subvariant.

“For now, we are considering these three scenarios because we are considering the 14 days incubation period of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So if you look at that, she might have gotten that from her home country,” she said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

“She might have gotten that while she was traveling or while she was in the plane, or she might have gotten that here in the country, the Philippines. Ito yung tatlong scenarios (These are the three scenarios). We cannot say right now where she really got it,” she added.

Vergeire said that there is a possibility that this variant has already been present in the country even before.

“Well the possibility is there. We know the limitations of our testing, we know the limitations of our sequencing. So the possibility of BA.2.12 is here, meron din posibilidad na ibang variant, baka andito rin (and of other variants might also be here). That is a possibility that we are preparing for,” she said.