Genome sequencing will be discussed by the Pasay City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) with the Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday in relation to the sudden spike of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the city.
CESU head Mico Llorca said that they are looking at the more contagious COVID-19 strain that originated from the United Kingdom (UK) as one of the reasons.
"That's one of the suspects. The DOH will meet us later to discuss the genome sequencing," he said.
On Tuesday night, Pasay City announced that 55 barangays have been placed on localized community quarantine.
These are barangays 28, 29, 32,40, 57,58, 66, 68, 71, 76, 81, 95, 98, 100, 107, 109, 118, 122, 132, 135, 136, 143, 155, 156, 159, 162, 175, 177, 178, 183, 190, 192, 201, 171, 7, 8, 14, 20, 26, 36, 51, 59, 65, 74, 90, 96, 99, 110, 111, 116, 131, 161, 188, 193, and 194.
Last week, City Administrator Dennis Acorda said that Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano wanted barangays with three or more COVID-19 cases locked down to contain the virus.
As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the city has a total of 435 active cases, 55 of which are new cases.
On Sunday, the OCTA Research Team said that Pasay City almost doubled its daily report of new cases compared to the previous week, having an average of 44 new cases per day.