BY GERARD NAVAL and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
THE Department of Health (DOH) yesterday said the South African (B.1.351) variant of the COVID-19 virus was so far the “most common” strain that the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) has detected among the samples that it has sequenced and assigned lineages.
In a statement, the DOH said that among the samples with assigned lineages, the South African variant accounts for 18.2 percent, while the United Kingdom (UK) (B.1.1.7) variant accounts for 16 percent, the Philippine variant (P.3) for 2.7 percent, and the Brazilian (P.1) variant for 0.03 percent.
“The DOH clarifies that B.1.351 is the most common variant among the samples sequenced with assigned lineages, contrary to reports that it is now the dominant variant in the country,” it said as it sought to explain the pronouncement of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday night that the South African variant is the most dominant COVID-19 variant in the country.
Duque, in his weekly report to President Duterte, said that based on the results of PGC’s genome sequencing as of May 2, the most dominant variant of the virus was the South African strain, with more people testing positive for it, followed by the B.1.1.63 or Hong Kong lineage, and B.1.1.7 or UK variant.
He said the South African lineage has the highest number of cases at 5,917, which accounts for 18.17 percent; while the Hong Kong variant accounts for 17.81 percent and the UK variant, for 16.02 percent.
“More people are testing positive for the B.1.351, this is the South African variant, and the B.1.1.7 UK variant. At present, the South African lineage has the highest percentage at 18.17 percent or 5,917 samples,” Duque said.
In its report yesterday, the DOH said the PGC has detected 678 additional COVID-19 variants out of the 744 samples sequenced by the center
“We report the detection of additional 289 B.1.1.7 (United Kingdom) variant cases, 380 B.1.351 (South Africa) variant cases, and 9 P.3 (Philippines) variant cases, based on the latest whole-genome sequencing report,” said the DOH.
Of the additional 380 South African variant cases found, 107 cases are returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs), 196 are local cases, and 77 cases are currently being verified if they are local or ROF cases.
Based on the case line list, 1 case is still active and 379 cases have been tagged as recovered.
In all, there are already 1,075 B.1.351 variant cases in the country.
On the other hand, the 289 UK variant cases detected, 48 cases are ROFs, 185 are local cases, and 56 cases are currently being verified if they are local or ROF cases.
Based on the case line list, three cases remain active, two have died, and 284 have recovered. In all, there are already 948 UK variant cases in the country.
Of the 9 additional Philippine variant cases, three are ROFs, four are local cases, and two cases are being verified if they are local or ROF cases. The DOH said all 9 cases have recovered. In all, there are already 157 P.3 variant cases in the country.
Meanwhile, President Duterte, in his Weekly Talk to the People, directed health authorities to closely monitor updates on the COVID-19 “variants” and “mutants” as some of them may not yet be covered by the current vaccines that the country is using against the coronavirus.
“Let us just pray that these variants, these mutants will not go haywire. Let’s monitor that because it might not be controlled by just one vaccine,” Duterte said.
The President said this is another challenge for scientists to work harder and learn more about the new variants and how to address them.
