The Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday, February 15, that one of the new reported cases of the more infectious UK variant of COVID-19 is linked to the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT3) cluster of virus infections.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters in a virtual briefing that the case is a 46-year-old female residing in Pasay City. She tested positive for the virus on January 25 and is currently under home quarantine.

She is among the 19 new cases of the UK variant the DOH reported on February 12.

The case is the mother of a personnel at the MRT3 depot, where clustering of cases was identified. The DOH did not the give further details of the MRT personnel.

In January, MRT3 was hit by 2nd wave of COVID-19 outbreak when 42 workers tested positive for the virus.

It remains unknown if the MRT personnel are infected with the UK variant. The DOH has not replied yet when asked if MRT staff who tested positive for the virus have also undergone genome sequencing.

Genomic sequencing is the process of analyzing the virus sample taken from a diagnosed patient and comparing it with other cases to see whether those who tested positive for COVID-19 have the new variant. 

The DOH also gave additional information on the other 5 cases of the UK variant in the country, whose details were not disclosed earlier due to further verification:

• A 20-year-old female who is a resident of Mountain Province. She tested positive for the virus during her pre-departure swab test done in the National Capital Region (NCR) last January 12. The DOH said she was initially tagged as a case from NCR because her test was done in Metro Manila as a requirement before she leaves the country. She returned to the Mountain Province and currently under isolation.
  
• A 37-year-old male who has reported address of Bukidnon. The DOH said he spent a long period of time in Metro Manila before he got sick. He tested positive for the virus on January 25.
  
• A 25-year-old female who has a reported address of Dasmariñas, Cavite. She tested positive on January 31 and currently under isolation in Region 3.
  
• A 47-year-old female who is a returning overseas Filipino from Morocco. She arrived in the country on January 12. After 10 days of isolation, she still tested positive for the virus so she is still under quarantine.
  
• A 49-year-old from Rizal province. The DOH did not give further details on the case.

Meanwhile, Vergeire said there is still not enough evidence to say that the country has community transmission of the UK variant.

“We cannot still give that information for community transmission because we still don’t have sufficient evidence to say such,” she added.

The country confirmed its first known case of the UK variant on January 13 in a Filipino male resident from Quezon City who traveled to Dubai on December 27 and returned to Manila on January 7. The DOH said he already tested negative for COVID-19.

The UK variant, known as B117, was first detected in the United Kingdom in September 2020. In November, around a quarter of the reported COVID-19 cases in the country were found to be of the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The pandemic has infected over 108 million people globally. As of Sunday, the Philippines has 549,176 cases, with 11,515 deaths and 511,743 recoveries. – Rappler.com