(Eagle News) — The 35-year-old man who was found to have the United Kingdom variant of the COVID-19 virus has already tested negative for COVID-19.
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a television interview that the results were based on a re-swabbing done on the man, a former Overseas Filipino Worker in South Korea, in the city’s Hope facility.
In a virtual briefing on Thursday, Belmonte said the local government was also planning to file charges against Baltic Asia Crewing Incorporated, the manning agency that brought the 35-year-old who had just recently tested positive to his apartment in Riverside, Barangay Commonwealth instead of taking him to a quarantine facility.
According to the local government, the man was staying at a hotel in Manila while waiting to be deployed abroad again.
He took a swab test on Jan. 17 and tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 18, but stayed in the hotel until Jan. 21.
On Jan. 21, the agency booked a ride from a ride-hailing company to take the male patient to the apartment.
She said the agency, as a result, violated Republic Act No. 11332 or the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.”
Section 9-d of the law says “non-cooperation of persons and entities that should report and/or respond to notifiable diseases or health events of public concern.”
She said she would also seek the Manila government’s help to determine what charges can be filed against the hotel that housed him.
On Thursday, the QC government confirmed the man tested positive for the UK variant.
The first reported UK variant case in the country was a QC resident who arrived in the country from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates in January.
He has since tested negative, the QC government said.
The Department of Health later said the UK variant had been found in 16 other COVID-19 cases in the Philippines.