2 more being tracked
(Eagle News) — The Department of Health has located five more of the eight travelers from South Africa who entered the Philippines before a travel ban was implemented amid the Omicron threat and which the government initially said it had been unable to track for RT-PCR testing.
With the development, the number of travelers the DOH is still trying to locate is down to two.
Before the five were located, the agency announced it had tracked one from the group that arrived in the Philippines from November 15 to 29.
Of the six so far tracked, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a television interview that two are in home quarantine while their RT-PCR test results are pending.
One is undergoing home quarantine with a negative RT-PCR test result, and one has completed the 14-day quarantine and has since been discharged.
The DOH has said there was a need to test these travelers who came from South Africa, where the Omicron variant has been detected to prevent any possible transmission.
So far, Metro Manila is under an alert level 2.
The Philippines logged over 500 additional COVID-19 cases on Thursday, December 10, an increase from the over 300 additional cases per day reported in previous days.