THE World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday said initial evaluation of the characteristics of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) variant detected in the Philippines (P.3) indicate it does not spread as fast as initially suspected.
In a televised public briefing, WHO Representative in the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said: “The evidence we are seeing indicates that this probably does not have the increased transmissibility that was originally thought to be associated with it.”
He cited WHO’s partial assessment of P.3 cases in Central Visayas and Cebu as among the basis of their initial conclusion. There are 148 P.3 variant cases detected in the country, mostly in the Visayas region.
Thus, Abeyasinghe said, the WHO still cannot consider P.3 as a variant of concern, much like the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7) and South African (B.1.351) variants.
The UK variant has a 50 percent increased transmission, while the South African variant is seen as capable of reducing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
“It (Philippine variant) is still listed as a variant of interest, rather than a variant of concern,” Abeyasinghe said.
Abeyasinghe, however, said the WHO has yet to determine the variant’s effect on the virulence of the virus.
“As to severity of the disease, we are still analyzing data so we cannot conclude conclusively yet about the potential of the variant,” he said.
The Department of Health (DOH) said they are still unable to determine if the country is already seeing a community transmission of the different COVID-19 variants.
In a virtual press briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said this is because the sample size of those that have undergone genome sequencing remains small.
“We only get bits and pieces across different regions. But that is not conclusive to say the variants have taken over already in the country,” she said.
The country has 658 UK variant cases, 695 South African variant cases, and 2 Brazil variant cases.
Meanwhile, Abeyasinghe and Vergeire said there is no need yet to change the minimum public health standards being implemented in the country amid recurring reports of the COVID-19 virus being transmitted through the air.
“We still recognize that this is not a big risk factor in the context of relative risk. Aerosols generated through talking, coughing, or sneezing can be controlled by the wearing of masks,” said Abeyasinghe.
“We have our existing protocol already. As of now, we are assessing these findings. But, so far, what we are doing right now is still appropriate to protect the public,” added Vergeire.
The health officials said workers in enclosed areas, such as hospitals and medical centers, should use higher grade of personal protective equipment to remain protected from the virus.
“WHO has recommended that airborne transmission is highly likely where medical procedures are happening, thus we advocate use of N95 masks. But if there is low risk in other circumstances, it doesn’t justify the use of precious commodities to minimize the risks,” said Abeyasinghe.
“For those in hospitals, they have to use the high tech masks, N95 masks because there are a lot of aerosol-generating equipment and the virus stays longer in the air in hospitals,” Vergeire echoed.
The medical journal The Lancet has earlier said that COVID-19 is transmitted primarily via the airborne route, especially when it happens indoors as compared to outdoors.
This is in contrast to the prevailing knowledge that COVID-19 transmission happens through droplets, as well as smaller aerosols that remain suspended in the air.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque yesterday said COVID-19 cases in some parts of Metro Manila have started to go down, which he attributed to the intensified implementation of the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR) strategy.
Roque said it is too early to say if and how the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 29 to April 11 contributed to the lower number of cases.
“Finally, the cases in Metro Manila went down based on the data provided by the local government units,” he said, adding that cases in Manila went down to 3,957 cases as of April 18 from 4,083 on April 15; while COViD-19 cases in Muntinlupa went down to 1,578 on April 18 from 1,692 cases on April 15.
In Pasay, cases have gone down to 390 on April 18 from 480 as of April 15, while it went down to 1,173 cases as of April 17 in Valenzuela from 1,218 cases on April 15.
Roque said the decrease may be slight, but it is proof that the intensified PDITR implemented by the LGUs is working.
Asked if the ECQ had an effect on the decrease, Roque said the impact of the lockdown has not yet been considered.
“We have not seen a drop in the number after the two-week ECQ. But we expect to see the impact after three weeks of ECQ,” he said.
Roque said the government continues to improve the current healthcare capacity with the expected opening of the Manila Mega COVID Field Hospital in Luneta, which the IATF will inspect today.
The government has opened five additional isolation facilities at the Quezon Institute that provides 110 beds, one unit at the Lung Center Hospital with 16 beds, and one unit at the Dr. Jose Rodriguez Hospital with 22 beds.
He said construction of a modular hospital at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute with a 60 bed capacity, and two units with a 44 bed capacity in Batangas is ongoing.
More hotels being converted as isolation and quarantine facilities
The Department of Tourism (DOT) said as of April 18, 21 more hotels in the National Capita Region (NCR) and the Calabarzon have been converted into isolation facilities providing some 2,222 rooms.
The DOT said in a statement that the Oplan Kalinga Secretariat has also made arrangements with two more accommodation establishments (AEs) in Quezon City with 184 rooms on standby.
For the NCR and the CALABARZON region, 29,153 rooms in 131 AEs are available for overseas Filipino workers as quarantine hotels thru the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), while 7,687 rooms in 48 AEs in NCR are non-OWWA listed quarantine facilities.
Hotel accommodations have served as temporary shelter to medical frontliners and business process outsourcing (BPO) employees as they carried out their duties, as well as stranded local and foreign travelers whose travel plans were hampered by restrictions brought about by community quarantines.
The DOT has earlier announced a temporary vaccination site will soon rise in the vacant lot of the Nayong Pilipino. The facility, which will be a public-private partnership, is expected to vaccinate at least 12,000 people a day. The lot is a property of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF), an attached agency of the DOT. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Irma Isip
