Iloilo City has logged its first case of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The infected patient is a 46-year-old seafarer who came from Kenya, Mayor Jerry Treñas disclosed on Wednesday, Jan. 5.
The returning overseas worker is a resident of Barangay Sooc in Arevalo district.
Based on data from the City Health Office’s (CHO) Epidemiology Surveillance Unit, the patient arrived in the city on December 24.
Upon arrival, he took a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and home qurantine.
His test result, which came out on Dec. 27, yielded positive for COVID-19.
The Department of Health (DOH-6) sent a specimen sample from seafarer to the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) for sequencing.
The Omicron variant was detected in the sample, based on the result received by the CHO on Tuesday, Jan. 4.
The unvaccinated seafarer left Kenya on Dec. 15 and arrived in Cebu the following day.
He stayed in a quarantine hotel in Cebu and underwent swab testing on Dec. 19, which came out negative.
“Wala talang nabal-an kon diin ya gid ini nakuha. Sa hotel sa Cebu or sa eroplano pakadto diri,” said Treñas in a radio interview.
The patient, according to CHO, is asymptomatic and is currently under facility quarantine.IMT
