MANILA – United Arab Emirates (UAE) was not included in Philippines’ travel restriction list as there were no reports of the United Kingdom (UK) variant of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) there.
Health secretary Francisco Duque III made the explanation in a virtual presser on Thursday after the country recorded its first case of new COVID-19 variant.
“Unang una, hindi po sila nag report kung meron ba silang UK variant. Wala po silang lumalabas na batayan para sabihin na sila ay meron na,” Duque said. “Pero ngayon, we have the evidence to tell them, you have the UK variant now.”
The Philippines’ first case of the UK variant was a 29-year-old real estate agent from Barangay Kamuning, Quezon City. He returned home from Dubai last Jan. 7 and was tested positive for COVID-19.
With the positive result, he was referred to an isolation facility in Quezon City, while his samples were sent to Philippine Genome Center for whole genome sequencing. He also underwent an x-ray and was found to have pneumonia.
The patient was with his girlfriend during the trip, but she tested negative for COVID-19 upon arrival. She is currently under strict quarantine and monitoring.
Contact tracing was immediately done by authorities and initially identified contacts are now under strict home quarantine, where none of them are exhibiting symptoms. Those aboard Emirates Flight No. EK 332 are advised to get in touch with their barangay health emergency response teams./PN
