Repeat test, quarantine for relapsed Delta variant patients

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) is testing and quarantining previous Delta variant cases to verify their status as some who were earlier tagged as recoveries tested positive anew for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

In a Palace briefing on Monday, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the retesting and repeat quarantine will be done for nine local Delta variant cases and five returning overseas Filipinos.

“So that is our existing protocol right now,” Vergeire said.

She said patients will remain in isolation until they test negative after 14 days.

In a separate statement, the DOH said all Delta variant cases “are immediately reassessed to determine their current clinical, laboratory, and isolation status”.

Patients shall be swabbed for repeat reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tests at the end of their isolation or upon determination that they were positive for the Delta variant.

Contact tracing done shall be reviewed to identify close contacts whose samples may be eligible for sequencing, she added.

Currently, the Philippines has detected 35 Delta variant cases, three of whom have died.