ITBAYAT, Batanes, Philippines — About 90 passengers of a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight that landed in Basco town of Batanes province on Saturday were placed on quarantine after an elderly passenger tested positive for COVID-19 and died hours after arriving on the island. ADVERTISEMENTBut the man was taken to Batanes General Hospital on Saturday afternoon after experiencing difficulty in breathing and had tested positive for COVID-19 based on a rapid antigen test. The patient was the sixth COVID-19 fatality in the province, which had six active cases as of Sunday. Asked if the man was infected with the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Sande said: “Usually the genomic test results to confirm this takes weeks to come out. Local officials had no knowledge if the crew members of the PAL flight were also isolated as they had already left the province when the passenger was confirmed to be a virus carrier.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer January 18, 2022 04:08 UTC