NEGROS Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson confirmed that the four Negrense returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) suspected of having the United Kingdom Covid-19 variant were subjected to re-swabbing.
Lawyer Rayfrando Diaz, provincial administrator, identified the suspected cases as the couple from Pontevedra who came from London, a teacher in Talisay City who came from the US Virgin Islands and a Bago City resident who came from Egypt.
Lacson said the specimen of the ROFs were sent Monday, January 25, 2021, to the Philippine Genome Center as only Philippine Airlines agreed to carry them to Manila.
The four tested positive for the coronavirus and came from countries that were banned due to confirmed cases of the UK variant, he added.
Lacson said the ROFs were swabbed again because the test kits that were used were for locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
He said results were expected to come out on Wednesday.
The Pontevedra couple were quarantined at the town's Covid-19 facility and the Bago and Talisay residents at the Provincial Healing Center in EB Magalona.
The couple tested positive for the coronavirus two days after they arrived in Negros Occidental on January 16 and tested positive again on Friday, January 22, Mayor Jose Maria Alonso said in a radio interview.
Zeaphard Caelian, head of the Humanitarian Response Team of the Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force, advised the concerned couple to follow the protocols implemented by the local Inter-Agency Task Force of their town and wait until the results of their latest samples come out.
Lacson reiterated his appeal to Negrenses to follow minimum health protocols.