Two new variants of the coronavirus are the most common variants found in the samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC), an official from University of the Philippines-National Institute of Health (UP-NIH) said Monday, March 29.

Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco-Dela Paz, executive director of UP-NIH, said the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants are the most common variants detected in at least 4,300 samples sequenced by the PGC.

“Nakita po doon na…ang pinakamadalas pa rin pong nakikita o most common variants of concern ay ang B.1.7 at tsaka po ang B.1.351 (It was found that…the most common variants of concern are the B.1.7 and the B.1.351),” Dela Paz said in a press briefing.

The health expert noted that the two variants, which were first found in the United Kingdom and South Africa, are currently considered as “variants of concern” in the country.

On the other hand, she said that the P.3 variant, which was first found in the Philippines, is still a “variant under investigation,” and still needs to be further studied.

Dela Paz said most of the sequenced samples with P.3 variant were from Central Visayas, while some were from the National Capital Region (NCR).

“To date, 104 samples na na-sequence sa Philippine Genome Center ay may P.3 na variant na karamihan ay nanggaling sa rehiyon ng Central Visayas (To date, 104 samples sequenced in the Philippine Genome Center have P.3 variants, most of which come from the Central Visayas region),” she said.

“Ang porsyento po noon ay 70 percent, pero sa NCR nakita na rin po siya. Mga 14.4 percent ay nakita sa NCR (The percentage of that was 70 percent, but in NCR, the variant has also been detected. About 14.4 percent were detected in NCR),” she added.

Dela Paz underscored the importance of early detection and isolation to stop the transmission of the new coronavirus variants across the country, aside from the strict observance of minimum public health.

“Kung tama pong naipatupad ang lahat ng ito, kasama po ang madaling pag-detect ng mga kaso, contact tracing, na isolate kaagad sa lalong madaling panahon ang mga kaso, pwede po nating putulin ang transmission (If all this is implemented effectively, including early detection of cases, contact tracing, and immediate isolation of the cases, we can cut off the transmission,” she said.

“Habang tumatakbo po ang mga araw kasi na hindi nai-hihiwalay kaagad ang mga kaso, madami po silang pwedeng mahawaan (As the days go by, and that the cases are not isolated immediately, they can infect many people),” she added.