The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed Friday that at least three travelers from South Africa, Burkina Faso, and Egypt have tested positive for COVID-19.
The announcement came as the country implements stringent flight measures to prevent the entry of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
“Each of these countries nagkaroon ng travelers who tested positive for COVID-19. Merong isa out of 253 from South Africa, isa out of 541 from Egypt, at isa out of three from Burkina Faso,” Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.
“So lahat po ng nag positive na ‘yan as long as CT values are appropriate, ipapadala po natin sa Philippine Genome Center for whole-genome sequencing,” she added.
Vergeire also told GMA News that one of the positive cases was an Overseas Filipino Worker from South Africa.
An initial research from South African experts showed that the Omicron variant is three times more likely to cause reinfections compared to Delta and Beta variants.
The data provides the first epidemiological evidence about Omicron’s ability to escape immunity.
The paper was uploaded in a preprint server but the study has yet to be peer reviewed.
The study showed 35,670 suspected reinfections among 2.8 million individuals with positive tests until November 27.
They were tested 90 days apart which indicate reinfection.
“Recent reinfections have occurred in individuals whose primary infections occurred across all three waves, with the most having their primary infection in the Delta wave,” Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis said in a tweet.
