A passenger who came from the Philippines has been identified by Hong Kong government officials to have tested positive for the UK variant of COVID-19.
Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Communicable Disease Branch of Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection, said the passenger, a 30-year-old female, arrived in Hong Kong from the Philippines on board Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight PR300 on Dec. 22, 2020.
The other patients monitored from Dec. 22 to Jan. 4 by the Hong Kong authorities also tested positive for the UK variant. The Hong Kong authorities said the patients came from the UK and France.
“The UK variant originated back in September as the people have been flying around. We anticipated that it will appear in other countries,” Chuang said.
“We found them in the France or Philippines returnees and this is anticipated. Clearly, we are implementing stringent measures… For example, quarantine for 21 days at designated hotels,” she added.
Department of Health (DOH) spokesperson Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire said the DOH had already requested more details from the Hong Kong authorities about the passenger from the Philippines.
At least 40 people are now the focus of the DOH contact tracing efforts, following reports that a foreigner who had travelled to the Philippines tested positive for the new COVID-19 variant upon arriving in Hong Kong.
Vergeire said that they were able to get the list of passengers onboard Philippine Airlines flight PR300 through the Bureau of Quarantine.
“[In] the line list of 40 (passengers), we were able to zero in on two individuals with a profile of 30 years old female,” she said.
Vergeire said those are the only details they know about the patient, especially since Hong Kong authorities did not mention the nationality during their press conference.
She said the phones of the two female passengers cannot be reached but they are already trying to contact the families through the addresses they gave to the airline.
PAL on Wednesday said that the passenger, who reported to have tested positive for the UK variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Hong Kong, presented a negative test result before taking the flight.
In an advisory, PAL said the passenger showed a negative COVID-19 test before taking the Manila-Hong Kong flight on Dec. 22 as part of the requirements of the Hong Kong government.
PAL did not disclose the identity of the passenger.
PAL said it is now working with the government to conduct contact tracing efforts.
“Philippine Airlines has turned over to the Philippine Bureau of Quarantine the necessary information that will enable them to carry out the contact tracing procedures on passengers of the said PAL flight,” PAL said in its statement.
“PAL is fully cooperating with health authorities and strictly adheres to vital health & safety protocols to help ensure that air travel is safe even during the pandemic,” it added.
Researchers tracking the pandemic said the Filipino with the new COVID-19 variant in Hong Kong may have contracted it in their local airport there.
“It’s possible that the patient got the transmission locally, at the airport, so we can’t say that the new variant is here but of course there’s a big possibility,” Dr. Guido David of the OCTA Research Grooup said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
There is a “99 percent probability” that 1 in 5 travelers who arrived before the Philippines imposed travel restrictions had the new coronavirus variant, David also said.
On Dec. 23, 2020, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said there were no cases of the new variant in the country.
Duque assured the public that authorities are on full alert to prevent the variant from reaching Philippine shores, and that experts are already working to determine the comprehensive profile of the new virus variant.
“We have the capability to detect this. The Philippine Genome Center, the RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine), and the UP-NIH (National Institute of Health) will be having a conference, and I am confident they will be able to give us a detailed characterization of this new variant,” Duque said.
Last week, the DOH issued a statement reiterating that there are no cases of the new variant in the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is aware of a new variant of COVID-19 that has emerged in the United Kingdom, but there is no evidence the strain behaves differently to existing types of the virus.
WHO’s top emergencies expert Mike Ryan said the agency is aware that there are at least 1,000 individuals in England who tested positive for the variant, which has spread to many countries including the United States.
A new variant of the novel coronavirus does not appear to cause more severe illness than other variants but it can spread rapidly, according to a matched study by Public Health England.
Meanwhile, the DOH said their agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs May recommend expansion of the UK variant travel ban list based on official reports, the Health Department said in its statement.
The department said travel restrictions would be regularly updated to include countries that officially report detection of the new variant.
The DOH said it has recommended the inclusion of six more countries in the travel ban, but did not specify which countries these are.
Travelers from countries not included in the travel ban will be endorsed to local government units upon testing negative at the point of entry. Despite negative results, LGUs are strongly urged to ensure that travelers complete their 14 day quarantine period either at a facility or at home, the DOH also said.
An epidemiologist, meanwhile, warned that if the new variant enters the Philippines, it could result in a much higher number of cases and deaths.
“If the variant takes over, the 20,000 cases can become almost 300,000 cases by the end of the month. This is what we want to avoid,” said Dr. John Wong, an epidemiologist and founder of EpiMetrics, a public health research company.
In other developments:
* The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) established a technical working group on COVID-19 Variants. The formation of the group is part of efforts to prevent the entry of the new variant that emerged in the UK and is believed to be more infectious than the original variant.
* Senator Francis Pangilinan said DOH assurances that the new variant is not yet in the country is no excuse to ease the country’s pandemic response efforts, particularly on contact tracing. “We must not repeat our mistakes last year,” the senator said. “As early as January 2020, one year ago, we were already calling for a preemptive ban on travelers from Wuhan and an intensive contract-tracing effort for those who are already here.” With PNA