Three overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Iloilo have contracted the UK variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to the Department of Health (DOH-6).

Dr. Jessie Glen Alonsabe, DOH-6 epidemiologist, said one of the three infected OFWs have already recovered from the disease and returned home.

The remaining two are still on quarantine in Manila and had not set foot yet on Iloilo.

The DOH-6 also monitored three other OFWs from Western Visayas who were infected with the highly contagious UK variant of COVID-19. Two of them are residents of Negros Occidental while the other one is from Capiz.

The presence of the UK COVID-19 variant in the country was confirmed by DOH last Jan. 13.

The first case involved a 29-year-old male resident of Kamuning, Quezon City. He came back to the Philippines from Dubai on Jan. 7.

This variant of COVID-19 was first detected in the United Kingdom in September last year.IMT