Duque: UK variant-positive traveler from Philippines ‘possibly’ got COVID-19 in HK

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday said it is possible that the traveler from the Philippines who tested positive for the UK variant of coronavirus in Hong Kong might have been infected there.

"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.

But according to the information released by the Department of Health, the 30-year-old woman from Cagayan Valley who was found with the UK variant in Hong Kong underwent quarantine upon arrival there.

Duque maintained that the UK variant remains to be undetected in the Philippines so far.

"Given the results of the genomic sequencing found by the Philippine Genome Center, wala pa. Ang nakita lang nila isa the usual dominant variant which is the D614G," he said.

He, however, admitted that he does not know if it's already among people who are not being tested.

"We don't know that. It's hard to speculate," Duque said.

Delaying entry

The Health Secretary reiterated that the entry of the new coronavirus variant in the country is "not a question of if but of when."

"Talagang pinaghahandaan natin ito. That's why we're ramping up our health systems capacity, isolation quarantine facilities, and of course our surveillance capacities," he said.

"We're trying to do everything to delay as much as we can the entry of this variant," he added.

Health officials in Hong Kong first reported that a traveler from the Philippines tested positive for the new coronavirus variant on Tuesday.

Philippine Airlines later said the passenger presented a negative test result prior to departure.

Contact tracing efforts are ongoing, according to the DOH.

The Philippine government has already imposed a travel ban for passengers coming from 21 countries where the new coronavirus variant had been detected. The addition of six more countries on the list was recommended by the DOH and the Department of Foreign Affairs, and approved by the Office of the President on Wednesday. — RSJ, GMA News