The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) has noticed some Delta variant cases being tagged as COVID-19 positive, despite the patients having recovered from the virus.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on July 19 that this situation came to light when nine local Delta variant cases and five returning overseas Filipinos – had recovered from the virus – had undergone a repeat quarantine and COVID-19 test.
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Surprisingly, initial results showed that some of them were still positive, she said, adding that while their Ct values were being checked, those patients would continue to remain in isolation for 14 days until they turned negative.
Vergeir also noted that a person’s Ct value would determine its eligibility for genome sequencing. She added that under updated protocols, individuals recovering from testing positive for a variant of concern would have to undergo a fresh round of quarantine and COVID-19 testing in isolation while awaiting results.
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“Persons with negative RT-PCR having completed minimum 10-day isolation may be discharged from isolation,” said Vergeire.
The DOH spokesperson added that contact tracing done would be reviewed to identify RT-PCR positive close contacts, whose samples may be eligible for sequencing.
“Testing with RT-PCR was also advised by medical experts at the end of 14-day quarantine,” she added.
Vergeire had stated last year that a recovered patient could test positive for COVID-19 if the PCR machine picked up remnants of the coronavirus. (AW)
