Three COVID-19 cases in the City of Manila were confirmed to have the United Kingdom and South Africa variants of the disease.
Dr. Arnold Pangan, Manila Health Department (MHD) chief, told the Manila Bulletin on Wednesday (March 24) that they are also verifying if four other COVID-19 patients in Manila contracted the new variants.
Of the seven COVID-19 patients that are confirmed and suspected to have contracted the new variants, one was infected with the UK variant while the rest were infected with the South Africa variant.
It is still unclear how the new COVID-19 variants entered the city.
On Monday (March 22), the Department of Health said the United Kingdom and South Africa variants of COVID-19 are now present in all cities in Metro Manila.
Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso said that the entry of new COVID-19 variants into the country may be one of the causes of the surge in infections the past few days.
Studies have shown that the UK and South African variants of COVID-19 are more infectious.
As of Wednesday, the city has 3,667 confirmed COVID-19 cases out of 35,916 confirmed cases. Of this number, 31,383 have recovered while 866 have died.
Tondo District 1 remains as the district with the highest number of confirmed cases in the city with 587.
It is followed by Sampaloc with 551 cases, and Malate with 400 cases.