40 passengers in PR300 flight manifesto being contacted by PHL authorities
(Eagle News) — Philippine authorities have started contact tracing of all passengers in the Philippine Airlines flight PR300 that arrived in Hong Kong on December 22 which Hong Kong health officials had identified as the plane which carried a traveler who was said to have been tested positive for the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire disclosed this in a DOH press briefing on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.
The DOH has also contacted the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health of the Hong Kong government.
But as the DOH is still awaiting information from the Hong Kong authorities, it had already started contact tracing of all the passengers in the PR300 flight of PAL.
“Actually we learned of this last night, around 9pm or 10pm, and we immediately started coordinating or trying contact the IHR focal point person of Hong Kong, through our IHR system also. Unfortunately we have not been receiving the response so what we did this morning was to call the WHO country office, and they committed to help us. But, of course, we were really in a hurry, or we wanted immediate answers. So we called on the western Pacific regional office no and through this they were able to give us a contact number a direct line that we can call the minister of health of the Hong Kong government so we are now trying to call directly so that we can get further details,” Vergeire said.
She said that the DOH has already contacted the Bureau of Quarantine to get the flight manifest of PR300, and that upon receiving it this morning, they have already started contact tracing the 40 passengers in the flight PR300.
-DOH says two 30-year old female passengers in the flight-
“In parallel, what we did was last night we already requested from the Bureau of Quarantine the flight manifest of PR 300, the flight that was identified and we received it this morning, we were able to look at the line list of passengers,” she said.
She said that two passengers in the flight were 30-year old females.
Vergeire, however, noted that the Hong Kong authorities in their press briefing did not identify the nationality of the 30-year old female passenger who, according to them, had tested positive for the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7.
-Nationality of passenger who tested positive for new variant not yet identified-
“We still don’t know the nationality because even in the press conference of the Hong Kong authorities, hindi naman sinabi na Filipino, they just said that it (the flight) came from Manila,” the DOH official explained in the press briefing on Wednesday, Jan. 6.
“So in the line list of the passengers, we have 40, we were able to zero in on two individuals with a profile of 30 years old female. So may dalawa tayo and we were able to get the contact address the contact numbers and all,” Vergeire said.
But Vergeire said that unfortunately, when they called up both contact numbers of these two female passengers, no one was answering.
“Hindi na po talaga sila sumasagot, patay ang telepono,” she said.
The DOH is also contacting the listed family members of these two female passengers, as well as the 31 other passengers in that flight, Vergeire said.
“We also are doing contact tracing na rin sa additional 38, so we have 40 (passengers in all). We just zeroed in initially, doon sa dalawa and now the other 38 passengers, nag-co-contact tracing na rin po kami dito,” she said.
Vergeire said that they also got all the contact details of the 40 passengers, and informed the DOH regional offices as well about all the passengers in the PR300 flight.
She said that they will also inform the public immediately if they get the complete information from the Hong Kong government.
(Eagle News Service)
