Seven people who had close contact with a Filipina from the United States who allegedly skipped quarantine tested positive for COVID-19, a Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) official said on Monday.

During the ''Laging Handa''public briefing, Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said seven out of the 15 close contact and one of the 19 secondary contact of Gwyneth Chua, the alleged "Poblacion Girl" tested positive for COVID-19. Authorities have yet to identify what kind of COVID-19 variant she is infected with.

"Her going in and out of her quarantine hotel really become a super spreader event," he said.

Malaya said the initial investigation of police criminal investigation shows possible involvement of the hotel which reportedly let Garcia go in and out of the quarantine facility.

"On December 22, she arrived at 11:23 pm from the airport, she arrived in Berjaya at that time but she was just there for less than thirty minutes and at 11:42 pm she left and go home to her house," he said.

"So, it is quite impossible that the hotel has no involvement in this incident," he said.

"It shows that the hotel has conspiracy with these individuals, Secretary Año already ordered the police to do random visits in all quarantine hotels in the whole country," he said.

To avoid such incident and modus, Malaya said Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano ordered the police to conduct random visit in quarantine hotels nationwide to make sure people under quarantine are present.

"We have six to eight hotels in Metro Manila for returning Overseas Filipinos and OFWs tested positive for COVID-19, and there are around 150 DOT accredited hotels," he added.

Malaya said police were also directed to visit private establishments to ensure minimum health standards were implemented properly.

"Secretary Año ordered the police to conduct random visit in different business establishments to make sure that the IATF regulations were followed. Secretary Año ordered PNP to strictly enforce granular lockdowns which is part of the alert level system," he said. Robina Asido/DMS