Return from face-to-face classes on hold due to concerns about virus mutation

Manila, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte canceled the limited face-to-face classes, which were supposed to be pilot-tested in January, amid mounting concerns about the new variant of the coronavirus that was first reported in the UK earlier this month and fears are raised. that is more infectious than the previous one. to form.

Duterte announced his decision Saturday during a meeting with health experts and members of the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Like others present at the meeting, Duterte wore a mask and face shield, but then removed his for the rest of the meeting because he said it was difficult for him to speak.

The face-to-face classes were supposed to take place from January 11 to 23 in areas with a low incidence of COVID-19, as part of easing quarantine restrictions nine months after the government closed much of the country. The list of schools where these classes can be resumed was supposed to be announced on December 28.

‘Normal’ mutations

“I am going to return the order and not allow face-to-face classes for children until we are done with this,” Duterte said. “That would be a disaster indeed, so aware of that, I am canceling the order I gave a few weeks ago to [Education] Secretary [Leonor] Briones ”.

But in an online forum held by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday, experts agreed that newly developed COVID-19 vaccines that are already being rolled out around the world could work just as well with the coronavirus variant. .

“We have no evidence that this virus is behaving immunologically differently in the population,” Judith Breuer, professor of virology at University College London, told the forum.

Jeffrey Barrett, director of the COVID-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK, and WHO laboratory expert Frank Konings expressed the same view.

“Mutations always sound so scary and [can] cause a lot of panic. But actually, for the virus itself, it is quite normal. Viruses replicate or make copies of themselves, “Konings said, adding that” they always change a little bit.

“They make a lot of mistakes, like a typo when writing a letter. And these errors are called mutations. And the virus with a mutation is called a variant, ”he said.

This led Breuer to conclude that “the vaccines will work just as well.”

He also said that there are currently no signs of reinfection among those who received the vaccine.

Barrett emphasized that “the important [is] keep in mind that even though the virus has changed, it is still led by SARS-CoV-2, and existing measures and interventions still work and need to be implemented ”.

Possible blockage

In Manila, the Secretary of Health, Francisco Duque III, tried to assure the public that “no case of the new variant has been recorded in the Philippines.”

Duque made this claim even as he confirmed that one of 79 arrivals from the UK has tested positive for COVID-19, while 23 others await test results.

Duterte, in their meeting on Saturday, said that the government should work on the assumption that the new variant can enter the country.

“We shouldn’t be complacent about that. We should treat it as a deadly disease that could be entering the Philippines, ”he said.

He added that “we are making some projections, but if the severity of the figures demands that we take immediate corrective measures, then we just have to return to the lockdown.”

Chief Implementer Carlito Gálvez Jr., of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said there should be a threshold to determine when a lockdown should be imposed.

According to the WHO, 12 countries in the Western Pacific region have registered cases from the United Kingdom, and Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan have registered cases of the new variant.

The government has extended the ban on arrivals from the UK, originally until December 31, for two more weeks.

Virus case update

The Health Department reported 1,406 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total number in the country to 469,005.

There have been 266 new recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 431,055.

Five deaths have been recorded, bringing the total death toll to 9,067.

Bulacan had the highest number of new infections with 100, followed by Quezon City (98), Rizal (88), Laguna (73) and Batangas (69).

Of the 28,883 active cases revealed on Saturday, 82.5 percent are mild, 9.9 percent are asymptomatic, 0.32 percent are moderate, 2.5 percent are severe, and 4.8 percent are percent are critical. –WITH REPORT FROM PATRICIA DENISE M. CHIU INQ

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