An official from the University of the Philippine-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) said that the variants of concern - such as the UK and South African variants of coronavirus - are not yet dominant in the country.
“Ang mga variants of concern ay hindi pa po dominant sa bansa (Variants of concern are not yet dominant in the country),” Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco-De la Paz, director for Health Program of the UP-PGC said in a press briefing Thursday, March 11.
“From more than 3,000 sequences na ginawa na po natin na parte ng ating genomic surveillance efforts ng bansa, simula po unang linggo ng January, ang most frequently observed lineage, hindi po variant, lineage is the B.1.63 or the Hong Kong lineage po which comprises about 24% (From more than 3,000 sequences that we have done as part of our country's genomic surveillance efforts, since the first week of January, the most frequently observed lineage, not variant, is the B.1.63 or the Hong Kong lineage which comprises about 24%),” she added.
Asked if the new variants of COVID-19 are the primary cause of the recent increase in new cases, Dela Paz said that further studies and more genome sequencing and surveillance are needed to pinpoint the reason of the spike.
“Hindi pa po natin sinasabi iyan nang may kasiguraduhan. Kailangan pa po nating mas pag-aralan ang mga bagay na ito at makapag-sequence pa po ng virus sa mga samples na galing sa mga lugar na may spike or clustering of cases sa iba’t ibang parte po ng bansa (We have not yet said that with certainty. We still need to study these things more and be able to sequence the virus in samples from areas with spikes or clustering of cases in different parts of the country),” Dela Paz said.
Meanwhile, Dela Paz noted the public’s complacency in following minimum health standard protocols as one of the possible causes of the recent spike in new infections.
“Ang amin pong naobserbahan ay maaari pong dahil isang taon na po tayong nakikipaglaban sa virus, medyo napagod na po ang ating mga kababayan sa pagsunod. Katulad po ng nasabi ninyo kanina ... na nagiging kampante na po tayo (What we have observed may be because we have been fighting the virus for a year, our countrymen are a little tired of following . Like you said before ... that we are becoming complacent),” she said.
“Kailangan po nating ulitin ang ating mensahe na kailangan po nating pababain ang kaso ng mga virus, kasi kapag pinababa po natin ang mga kaso, bababa din po ang tsansa ng virus na mag-mutate at maminsala sa atin (We need to repeat our message that we need to reduce the number of viruses, because when we reduce the number of cases, the chance of the virus to mutate and harm us will also decrease),” she added.
Dela Paz said that the variants of COVID-19 that have been detected in the country so far are the UK variant and the South African variants.
The Philippines on Thursday recorded its highest number of new infections in a single day this year, with 3,749 cases.
This brings the nationwide total to 607,048 COVID-19 cases.
The Department of Health (DOH) has earlier acknowledged the possibility that the new variants are among the reason behind the spike in new cases.