More COVID-19 cases with UK and South African variants also detected
(Eagle News) — The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed Saturday, March 13, a new variant of the coronavirus called P.3 which was first found in the Philippines, as it also detected the first case of the Brazilian variant in the country.
Because of this, all three highly infectious variants – the UK variant (B.1.1.7), the South African variant (B.1.351 variant) and the Brazilian variant (P.1) – are now present in the Philippines, even as a new variant is detected.
The DOH said that the Philippine Genome Center had detected 59 new cases with the UK variant and 32 new cases of the South African variant. This brings the total UK variant cases in the country to 177, while the South African variant cases reached 90 in all.
The first Brazilian variant case detected in the country was a returning overseas Filipino worker who hails from Western Visayas.
But the new variant detected in the Philippines which is called the P.3 variant was detected in the 98 COVID-19 cases based on the samples submitted for genome sequencing.
Dr. Anna Lisa Ong-Lim, a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the DOH, said that they saw this variant in certain places in the country, but did not name these areas.
She said that the Philippine Genome Center shared some data on this particularly the 85 cases that they are monitoring where there had been detected mutations.
“So noong natuklasan natin itong information na ito, sinubmit natin doon sa isang global reporting system and we were waiting for them to let us know kung ito nga ba ay unique to the Philippines or natuklasan na sa ibang bansa,” Dr Lim said.
“They’ve come back to us and told us na ito nga ay bagong variant and they are assigning it the P-3 lineage—or the designation of P-3.”
The DOH said that they do not want to identify this new variant on the place where it was found so as not to cause discrimination.
Dr. Lim said that there is still not enough data to show if this new variant, P.3, is more transmissible like the three other highly infectious variants – the UK, South African and Brazilian variants.
-Characteristics of new P.3 variant still being studied-
“Siguro I’d like to establish ‘no the proper way to call this is the P-3 variant. We want to do away nga with referring this as the PHL variant of the Philippine variant kasi nga hindi acceptable practice iyong ganoon na we assign place names, we’re trying to veer (away) from that,” she said.
“And then with respect to characterization, sa ngayon wala pa tayong sapat na datos para sabihin kung mas nakakahawa ba siya, mas nakaka-cause ba ng lubhang sakit or mayroon bang association with higher mortality rates. We are still observing the impact of this characteristics on the particular variant na na-identify natin. Saan ba siya nakikita? Actually medyo may mangilanngilang lugar kung saan siya na-isolate,” she explained.
Dr. Lim admitted that the spike in new COVID-19 cases reported in the country is really alarming. As of Saturday, new COVID-19 cases reported in the country reached 5,000, bringing the total active cases to 56,679. Total cases, including those who recovered, reached 616,611.
Meanwhile the DOH said that of the 59 new cases detected to have the UK variant, 30 are local cases, 18 are returning OFWs, while the location of the 11 cases are still being verified.
Of the 30 new local cases with the UK variant, 16 are from the Cordillera Admnistrative Region (CAR), 10 are from Metro Manila, 2 are from Central Luzon, and another 2 are from CALABARZON.
On the other hand, of the 32 new South African variant cases detected in the Philippines, 21 are local cases, one is a returning OFW, while the location of the 10 other cases is still being verified.
The DOH also said that the 85 mutations earlier reported have the E484K and N501Y mutations detected in the Central Visayas have been named as the P.3 variant.
“This new variant is connected to the B.1.1.28 lineage which includes the P.1 or the Brazilian variant.
Upon verification with the Phylogenetic Assignment Of Named Global Outbreak Lineages (PANGOLIN), the said samples with these mutations have been reassigned to the P.3 variant, belonging to the B.1.1.28 lineage, to which the P.1 variant also belongs,” it said.
“Thirteen (13) additional cases were detected in this batch which bring the total P.3 variant cases in the country to 98,” the DOH said.
“The DOH, UP-PGC, and UP-NIH (UP National Institute of Health) emphasize that at present, the P.3 is not identified as a variant of concern as current available data are insufficient to conclude whether the variant will have significant public health implications,” it added.
(Eagle News Service)