(BusinessWorld) EIGHT Filipinos who supposedly recovered from the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant from India have tested positive again, Philippine health authorities said on Tuesday.

The cases now remain active, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told a virtual news briefing.

The patients, who completed a 14-day quarantine, were required to undergo another test, she said. They were among the 16 Delta patients that the Health department reported recently.

Four of the patients were in Cagayan de Oro, one was in Manila, another was in Misamis Oriental and two others were returning migrant workers, she said.

The Department of Health (DoH) was studying why the patients again tested positive for the variant.

“Almost all of them have high-cycle threshold value, indicating a low viral load and therefore most likely they are no longer infectious,” Ms. Vergeire said. “But their RT-PCR was positive so we needed to quarantine them again or isolate them again and we will closely monitor them.”

She said 91 close contacts of the 16 Delta patients had been traced as of Monday. Of the 35 Delta variant patients in the country, three have died.