The Department of Health (DOH) said that a total of 253 travelers from South Africa arrived in the Philippines from November 15 to 29.
The DOH said 249 were returning overseas Filipinos and four were foreign nationals.
“The BOQ (Bureau of Quarantine) has started to locate these passengers. No positive case was reported on re-test while the three foreign nationals from Region VI tested negative on RT-PCR re-test last December 1,” Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press briefing.
Vergeire said that the BOQ already contacted 71 travelers while 182 are being verified by the government.
At least 67 individuals have yet to be retested for the virus.
The Philippine government is imposing restrictions over the threat of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
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.
