The city government said Thursday it has heightened investigation and contact tracing activities on the possible source of the more contagious coronavirus strain B.1.1.7 or the UK variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

This, after the city recorded its first known case of the B.1.1.7 case involving a 10-year-old male patient, whose test result came out last week.

Dr. Ashley G. Lopez, head of the City Health Office (CHO), said the case was among the sixth batch of samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) on February 8, in which three out of 19 new cases of the B.1.1.7 in the country were traced from Davao Region.

Two of the cases are from Davao de Oro and one from this city.

Lopez said the local health team immediately investigated the case and conducted contact tracing for the close contacts of the 10-year-old patient.

“The boy was immediately isolated after he tested positive on January 18. He was isolated for 10 days because he was asymptomatic. After 10 days, the boy was sent home and continued quarantine for four more days,” Lopez said.

He said the boy’s grandmother has recently completed a 21-day quarantine.

There is no clear evidence yet how the first known case contracted the B.1.1.7 strain, he said.

“Based on the assessment, the family has no history of travel even in the past year and has no known contact with a suspected UK variant or foreigner. We can’t find a history of exposure to a probable UK variant,” Lopez said.

Currently, he said there is no evidence of community transmission of the UK variant here. (PNA)