January 7, 2021
The traveler from the Philippines who tested positive for the UK COVID-19 variant is a Filipina domestic helper in Hong Kong, the Department of Health confirmed Thursday.
“Yes, the HK case is a Filipina domestic helper,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters.
On Tuesday, Hong Kong authorities reported that a passenger from the Philippines tested positive for the new COVID-19 strain that originated from the UK.
According to Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Communicable Disease Branch of Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection, the passenger onboarded Philippine Airlines flight PR300.
“[Patient] 9003 took PR300 and arrived in Hong Kong on the 22nd of December from Philippines,” Chuang said in the special administrative region’s Information Services Department’s briefing.
January 7, 2021
For Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, it is possible that the passenger from the Philippines who tested positive for the UK COVID-19 variant got the virus in Hong Kong.
“When she left, she tested negative and I think on January 2, 10 days after she arrived in Hong Kong, she tested positive. So that’s 10 days between the time she left and the time she arrived in Hong Kong where she tested positive,” Duque said in an interview on ANC.
“You can readily just speculate it’s possible she might have contracted it there,” he added, underscoring that this theory still needs to be validated.
IATF forms panel of experts to monitor coronavirus variants By VIRGIL LOPEZ, GMA News
Published January 6, 2021 11:05am
Updated January 6, 2021 11:14am The Philippines’ COVID-19 task force has created a panel of experts that will monitor and identify the occurrence of new coronavirus variants in the country. Headed by Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the technical working group is also mandated to provide policy recommendations to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) on the appropriate response regarding these variants. The other members of the panel are the following: Executive Director Jaime Montoya of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (co-chairperson)