18 most positive for British variant of COVID-19 in PH

MANILA, Philippines z– Eighteen more cases of the highly contagious British variant of coronavirus have been detected in the Philippines, bringing the total to 62.

The Department of Health (DOH) said on Sunday that 13 of the latest variant cases in the UK were Filipinos who returned from other countries between January 3 and 27 and tested positive for COVID-19, but have now recovered.

Three of the more recent UK variant cases were from the Cordillera Administrative Region: two are 12-year-old boys connected to the original Bontoc, Mountain Province group, while the third is a 41-year-old female related to the first The Trinity. , Benguet, cluster.

Recovered

All three cases have recovered, while all of their close contacts have completed the quarantine, the DOH said.

No information was released on the other two UK variant cases.

The 18 new cases of variant B.1.1.7 were detected among a batch of 757 COVID-positive samples sequenced by the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (PGC) on February 18.

The DOH did not say whether the additional cases confirm community transmission of the B.1.1.7 variant that has become a global concern since it was first reported in the UK late last year for being more transmissible, although not. more deadly than the original COVID. -19 agent.

The DOH also said that three more COVID-19 cases with “potentially clinically significant” mutations were detected in central Visayas from the last batch that had been sequenced.

The latest discoveries brought to 34 the number of COVID-19 cases that had the N501Y mutation found in the UK variant and the E484K mutation found in the South African variant.

Data is not enough

Dr. Cynthia Saloma, executive director of PGC, said last week that the available data was not yet sufficient to conclude whether these mutations had significant implications for public health.

DOH said the PGC and the UP-National Institute for Health would forward the new findings to the World Health Organization and the Global Initiative to Share All Influenza Data.

The findings “will aid in the ongoing global effort to track and study new and emerging genomic changes in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which vaccine manufacturers can use to recalibrate vaccines and ensure efficacy against COVID-19.” the DOH said.

DOH also asked local governments where there were cases of the UK variant and worrisome mutations to immediately report sharp increases in cases.

“As long as COVID-19 transmission persists, our strengthened biosurveillance will continue to detect mutations,” said DOH, emphasizing the need to strictly practice public health standards to reduce infection rates and reduce the risk of mutations.

“The goal is to reduce transmission rates to levels where bio-surveillance can no longer detect mutations of interest,” he added.

More infections

On Sunday, the DOH reported 1,888 additional coronavirus infections, bringing the total confirmed COVID-19 cases to 561,169.

The DOH said 20 more patients had died, including 12 who were previously marked as recovered, bringing the death toll to 12,088.

It stated that 9,737 mildly ill or asymptomatic cases were recovered after completing a 14-day quarantine, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 522,843.

Deaths and recoveries left the country with 26,238 active cases, of which 87.3 percent were mild, 6.1 percent asymptomatic, 0.91 percent moderate, 2.8 percent severe, and 3 percent critical.

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