THE local government unit (LGU) of Mati announced on Wednesday, January 2, 2022, that seven Covid-19 cases with the Omicron variant were detected in the city.
In a press statement released by the Mati LGU on Wednesday, the Department of Health confirmed seven Omicron cases from specimen samples submitted in January to the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center for whole-genome sequencing.
Based on initial investigation, Mati LGU said six out of the seven confirmed cases belong to one family that accommodated visitors from Manila and Cebu City during the holiday season in 2021.
The seventh case is a returning overseas Filipino worker who was quarantined immediately upon arrival at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport on December 24, 2021. The country of origin was not disclosed.
The 12 close contacts of the infected family all tested positive for the virus, but the OFW patient did not have close contact with any resident of Mati City.
As of Thursday, no further details were provided, such as their vaccination and health status. All seven patients were said to have already recovered as of January 17, 2022.
“Recovered na sila even before the confirmation na omicron tumama sa kanila,” said Ben Tesiorna, Mati City’s information officer.
(They have already recovered even before the Omicron variant was detected.)
The date of when the specimen samples were collected was also not disclosed.
Tesiorna said the City of Mati Incident Management Team has implemented granular lockdowns since December 2021 and has been strictly monitoring households with at-home Covid-19 patients.
“The City of Mati Incident Management Team had long expected the arrival of Omicron variant in our city. This is the very reason why we had been preparing for it since December,” Mati Incident Management Team said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Mati City has recorded 400 active Covid-19 cases, 43 new recoveries, and one new death on Wednesday, February 2. The LGU has recorded 694 total cases for January 2022.
Amid the current surge, the City Government of Mati will adhere to the minimum public health standards and the vaccination campaign as protective measures against the coronavirus disease.
“Though the Omicron surge is still not over, health authorities are confident that it will soon go down,” the city government said.
The Mati IMT also advised the public to remain vigilant and strictly adhere to observing the minimum public health standards to ensure that the infection would be contained.