TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Rural Health Unit (RHU) of Lubuagan town has started tracing the contacts of two coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients confirmed to be infected with the B.1.1.7 United Kingdom (UK) variant.
Dr. Edward Tandingan, Provincial Health Officer of Kalinga, on Monday said the two confirmed cases are both males, aged five and seven years old, both residents of Poblacion, Lubuagan.
He said the two were confirmed positive for Covid-19 on Feb. 17 and since then were under isolation.
Tandingan said that based on record of the Provincial Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (PESO), the two patients were already tested negative of the virus on March 3 and 8, respectively, after the conduct of another reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
However, the Philippine Genome Center on Monday confirmed that the two were positive with the Covid-19 UK variant and as such, Tandingan said the RHU team is now doing contact tracing up to the third generation contacts with technical guidance from the Department of Health’s (DOH) regional and provincial health offices.
In a post on the official social media page of the Kalinga provincial government, it said: “the Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force (PIATF) against Covid-19 has initially ordered that the patients be under strict isolation for 14 days and that all contacts and contacts of contacts be put under quarantine and be tested as may be appropriate.”
The provincial government also said that Kalinga Governor Ferdinand Tubban has urged the Regional Health Unit and the local government of Lubuagan to work together to facilitate the rapid contact tracing to immediately identify those who need to be quarantined and tested so that further transmission of the infection can be stopped.
Tubban has assured everyone that the provincial government is continuously coordinating with concerned agencies and is closely monitoring the situation and if necessary, come up with appropriate quarantine measures for the town of Lubuagan.
As of March 14, Kalinga has recorded a total of 2,375 positive Covid-19 cases with 96 active and 23 deaths. **By Jesse Maguiya, PNA
