[ad_1]
MANILA, Philippines – Test results on whether the new and more infectious variant of the COVID-19 virus has entered the country may be released this week, the Health Department said Monday.
The Undersecretary of Health, María Rosario Vergeire, said that the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) has already received samples from passengers who arrived in the Philippines from countries with reported cases of the new COVID-19 variant.
Samples from other COVID-19 patients infected in November and December were also included in the genome sequencing.
“We have been given around seven days to process nitong (for processing) genome sequencing … Hopefully, by Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we can already get the results of these passengers who were cleaned,” said Vergeire. in an online medium. forum.
“We have gathered from the target population or from those sectors of the population that we consider vulnerable and are most at risk of having this genome or this variant,” he added.
(We include samples from the target population or from those sectors of the population that are vulnerable and have a higher risk of obtaining the new variant).
He said the health department took samples from patients who are in hospitals, in areas with clusters of cases and even from closed institutions.
A new variant of COVID-19, which was first detected in the UK, has started to spread around the world. Because of this, the Philippine government has started to ban travelers coming from the UK from entering the country.
Later, the government expanded travel restrictions to countries with reported cases of the new variant.
Vergeire said passengers entering the country from affected countries are screened twice upon entry: once for the polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test to verify COVID-19, and another in case of genetic sequencing. .
Only those who have tested positive for the coronavirus will be sent to the PGC for genome sequencing.
A traveler from the UK who recently arrived in the Philippines tested positive for COVID-19, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. However, it is not yet known whether or not the traveler is carrying the new COVID variant.
As of January 3, the Philippines has recorded a total of 477,807 COVID-19 cases, with 448,258 recoveries and 9,257 deaths.
JE
Read next
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer and more than 70 other titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download from 4am and share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
For comments, complaints or inquiries, please contact us.
[ad_2]
