THE Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, confirmed that eight other passengers of Emirates Dubai-Manila flight EK332 and five close contacts of the first B.1.1.7 variant case in the Philippines have also tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
In a statement, the DOH said the eight Emirates passengers are all Filipino citizens.
The agency said preliminary analysis of their swab samples yielded a cycle threshold value greater than 30, which indicates a low viral load. The new variant that was first detected in England, known as B.1.1.7, has been associated with a high viral load, making it more contagious than the dominant variant circulating globally.
The eight passengers are scheduled to be swabbed again before Thursday, January 21, for a repeat genome sequencing to determine the presence of the new Sars-CoV-2 variant.
The DOH said all eight passengers were tested via RT-PCR and quarantined upon arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on January 7, 2021.
Upon the release of positive RT-PCR results, all eight were transferred to isolation facilities and their samples were secured from confirming laboratories for whole genome sequencing by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).
“All eight co-passengers are in stable condition and will remain under strict monitoring while completing isolation and while waiting for results of a repeat test,” DOH said.
Contact tracing also showed that the eight cases had no close contacts when they arrived, and infection and prevention control practices were strictly observed by personnel who attended to the said cases.
Meanwhile, the five close contacts of the patient who recently tested positive are: