UK variant linked to MRT cluster

MANILA, Philippines — One of the 19 new United Kingdom variant cases recorded last week had links to an employee of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) where there was an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in January, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

This is believed to be the first local UK variant case detected in the National Capital Region (NCR) through genome sequencing done by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).

According to DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the UK variant case is a 46-year-old woman from Pasay City, who has a child working at the MRT. The MRT employee is now undergoing quarantine while the DOH-NCR investigates the cases.

Last month, a cluster of COVID-19 cases was reported at the depot of MRT. Among those infected was the agency’s general manager Rodolfo Garcia, who died of COVID on Feb. 10.

Over the weekend, the DOH reported that 19 new cases of the UK variant were detected by the PGC, bringing the total number of cases to 44.

Details of the six cases, including the mother, were unknown at the time.

Vergeire said that among the six cases is a 20-year-old female from Mountain Province who yielded positive swab result during a pre-departure test done in the NCR prior to her return to the province.

“The third is a 37-year-old male (who) reported an address in Bukidnon but case investigation showed the patient spent a long time in NCR as part of his training. He was tested and is now in an isolation facility,” she added.

The fourth case is a 25-year-old female whose indicated address is Dasmariñas, Cavite. She turned out positive for COVID-19 in Jan.31 and is undergoing isolation in Central Luzon.

Another case is a 47-year-old-female from Las Piñas, a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from Morocco. She arrived in the country last Jan. 12 and turned positive for COVID-19 after her initial swab. Her second test still yielded the virus so she was advised to continue isolation at home.

“The 6th case is a 49-year-old male from Rizal. Still trying to investigate if he is an ROF,” Vergeire added.

The official said that contact tracing continues to identify the people who could have interacted with the 19 UK variant cases.

For the case in Davao, three cases were found and authorities were able to trace 107 individuals while in Mountain Province, 12 contacts were assessed. In Ilocos Norte, 50 contacts were traced.