A FEMALE passenger on board a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Manila to Hong Kong was found to have been infected with the new variant of Sars-CoV-2, Hong Kong authorities confirmed Tuesday, January 5, 2021.
Based on the January 4, 2021 report by the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health in Hong Kong, the 30-year-old woman is a Hong Kong resident who returned from Manila on board PR300 on December 22, 2020.
She is currently hospitalized, with symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) manifesting on December 28, the CHP report showed. She has been listed as Patient 9003 and classified as an imported case.
She occupied seat number 40A. Passengers within two seats surrounding her and cabin crew who served her were urged to call the CHP hotline.
As of Wednesday morning, the Department of Health in the Philippines has yet to issue a statement on this latest case.
The same CHP report listed four other flights from Manila with confirmed or probable coronavirus cases, namely, Hong Kong Airlines HX782, Cathay Pacific CX906 and Cebu Pacific 5J272 with two cases.
The HX782 flight carried Patient 8426, who occupied seat 41H. The flight arrived from Manila on December 22.
Patient 8833 was on seat 70A of CX906, which arrived from Manila on December 28.
The two cases from the Cebu Pacific flight were listed as Patients 8612 and 9005.
Patient 8612 occupied seat 2A and arrived in Hong Kong on December 26 while Patient 9005 was on seat 39A and arrived on January 2, 2021.
The five flights from Manila were among the 24 flights with confirmed or probable cases of infection that arrived in Hong Kong in the recent 14-day period from December 22, 2020 to January 4, 2021.
The Philippines has suspended inbound flights from the United Kingdom, where the new Sars-CoV-2 variant was first detected, since 12:01 a.m. of December 24, 2020.
Foreign travelers arriving from or transiting through 20 other countries, including the United States (US), have not been allowed entry since 12:01 a.m. of December 30, 2020.
Outbound travelers, however, have been allowed to leave. These restrictions are in place until January 15, 2021.
Hong Kong announced a ban on all passenger flights from Britain on December 21, 2020.
As of January 5, the CHP has recorded a total of 9,050 coronavirus cases in Hong Kong, including one probable case. Of these cases, 8,127 have been discharged and 153 had died while 740 are still hospitalized or pending admission. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)