(Eagle News) — The eight travelers from South Africa who have yet to be located were unresponsive or provided wrong or incomplete details on their personal information sheets.
In an interview, Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire said of the eight, four listed down their agencies’ contact numbers.
However, the numbers cannot be reached.
Meanwhile, one gave a mobile number but was lacking one figure.
One gave an incomplete address, while two others were not responding even if they gave what appeared to be correct mobile numbers.
Vergeire urged the travelers to coordinate with their DOH regional offices.
“Para lang makuha natin yung detalye niyo, ma-i-test po namin kayo agad, at magawa po natin kung ano po ang kailangan para ma-prevent po natin kung sakali ang pagkalat ng transmisyon nitong Omicron variant,” she said.
According to the DOH, the eight were among the over 200 travelers who entered the Philippines from South Africa and other countries before the government included such countries in its red list over the Omicron variant.
The variant has been found to have over 50 mutations, many of which were concentrated on the spike protein that binds to the human enzyme ACE-2.
This enzyme is what the virus that causes COVID-19 attaches to to infect a person.
With their findings, Italian scientists have concluded the variant has adapted well to humans.
The World Health Organization has said the variant could therefore evade existing immunity, causing a surge in COVID-19 cases and generating catastrophic effects.