Based on the report provided by the Hong Kong International Health Regulations National Focal Point and our Centers for Health Development, the case is a 30-year old female from Cagayan Valley Region who left the region last December 17, 2020. On December 18, 2020, she arrived in NCR and underwent quarantine as per their workplace protocol. A day after, on December 19, 2020, she was tested using RT-PCR which yielded a negative result.

The case left for Hong Kong on December 22, 2020 where she underwent quarantine upon arrival. On January 2, 2021, she underwent RT-PCR testing again where the swabs tested positive and detected to also be positive for the UK variant. She remains in isolation and in stable condition.

Meanwhile, contact tracing efforts are underway. The flight manifest has been obtained and the tracing of passengers is being conducted while we await updates on the contact tracing efforts done in Hong Kong. There is also ongoing contact tracing by the concerned epidemiology and surveillance units in Cagayan Valley Region and NCR. They have been instructed to ensure strict quarantine of identified close contacts and for samples collected from said contacts to be sent for confirmatory testing and, if samples test positive, subsequent whole genome sequencing.