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Zambo Norte ROF positive for Covid-19 UK variant: DOH

By Teofilo Garcia, Jr.

March 6, 2021, 7:20 pm

ZAMBOANGA CITY--The Department of Health-9 (DOH-9) is conducting contact tracing following the discovery of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) UK variant case in Zamboanga del Norte.

Dr. Joshua Brillantes, DOH-9 director, disclosed Saturday that the patient is a 28-year-old female Returning Overseas Filipino (ROF) from the Zamboanga del Norte town of Labason.

Brillantes said the focus of the contact tracing are the passengers who were with her on the sweeper flight of the Overseas Worker Welfare Administration (OWWA) from Manila to this city. They also include the passengers of the vehicle that transported her to Labason and her relatives and family members who came in close contact with her.

Brillantes said the ROF, who worked in Abu Dhabi, arrived in Manila on Feb. 8.

She was found Covid-19 positive following a Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test on February 13.

“She was placed under quarantine and was asymptomatic when released from the quarantine facility in Manila,” Brillantes said, adding the ROF arrived in this city aboard a sweeper flight on Feb. 24.

She and 11 other ROFs boarded a hired vehicle en route to her hometown, also on February 24. It was not immediately known whether the 11 other ROFs are also from the province of Zamboanga del Norte.

Brillantes said they were alerted on Thursday, March 4, by the Philippine Genome Center that the ROF is positive of the UK variant virus. A swab sample of the patient was immediately sent to the health facility.

Brillantes said that the ROF is currently in quarantine in her hometown. (PNA)

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