38 contacts of UK variant cases positive for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that 38 close contacts of persons infected with the UK variant of coronavirus in Bontoc, Mountain Province and Calamba City, Laguna have tested positive for the original COVID-19.

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire disclosed that from 144 close contacts in Bontoc, 34 turned out positive for COVID-19.

Data showed that 28 out of these 34 contacts are still subject to genome sequencing to determine the possible presence of the UK variant.

Of the 12 COVID cases in Bontoc, four are considered as “first generation” cases, including an individual who arrived in the town from the United Kingdom last Dec. 14.

Vergeire said that the returnee initially tested negative for COVID-19 and underwent quarantine before arriving in Bontoc and staying in a relative’s house for celebrations. On Dec. 29, people in the area started manifesting symptoms.

“We are still determining the index case as we do our backtracking of contact tracing. Though now, we treat the individual who came home on Dec. 14 as our index case,” she said.

The DOH also said that of 144 contacts, 116 have already been tested, with 74 turning out negative for the original SARS-CoV-2.

In Calamba City, out of 97 contacts traced from one UK variant case, four persons tested positive for the original COVID-19 a mother, father, sibling and grandmother.

The DOH is also looking for close contacts of two overseas Filipino workers who yielded the UK variant. The two OFWs arrived from Lebanon last Dec. 29 via Philippine Airlines Flight PR 8661. The first OFW was from Leon, Iloilo, discharged from isolation last Jan. 19, while the other is from Binangonan, Rizal.

Currently, there are 17 confirmed cases of the UK variant in the country with the 29-year-old man from Quezon CIty as the index case.

NBI finds close contacts of index case

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that the National Bureau of Investigation found in Cavite one of the cloase contacts of the UK variant index case and turned the individual over to the DOH. The NBI was also able to discover the whereabouts of another close contact not found by the DOH. The DOH earlier sought the help of the NBI to find the two co-passengers.

“The DOJ, through the NBI, has located and turned over to the DOH one close contact and discovered the location of another close contact of the first arriving passenger who tested positive for the UK variant of COVID-19,” said Guevarra.

UK variant more transmissible

In a recent briefing, three health experts said that though it is more transmissible, there is not enough evidence yet to conclude that the new UK variant of COVID-19 is deadlier.

“Studies showing that maybe it is 30 percent more deadly is not yet final. It is very very preliminary and needs further studies,” said University of the Philippines - National Institutes of Health’s Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB) director Edsel Maurice Salvana. He noted that if a variant is more transmissible, it only means that more people will get infected.

“It is not necessarily the virus itself but the impact that it has on the actual numbers. If more people get sick, then more elderly or more people with co-morbidities are at risk,” added Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines president Anna Lisa Ong-Lim.

“There is no certainty that the virus is really more deadly. When we talk about factors affecting mortality, it is not just about the virus. It’s about the characteristics of the patients,” Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases president Marissa Alejandria said. — Evelyn Macairan