The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday, May 4, reported the detection of 678 additional cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) variants in the country.
In a statement, the Health department, together with the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC), and the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH), reported the detection of additional 289 B.1.1.7 variant cases, 380 B.1.351 variant cases, and nine P.3 variant cases from the 744 samples sequenced.
The DOH said of the additional 289 B.1.1.7 variant cases detected, 48 cases are returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs), 185 are local cases, and 56 cases are currently being verified if they are local or ROF cases.
"Based on the case line list, three cases remain active while two have died and 284 have recovered," it said.
Of the additional 380 B.1.351 variant cases, the DOH said, 107 cases are ROFs, 196 are local cases, and 77 cases are currently being verified if they are local or ROF cases.
It added that based on the case line list, one case is still active and 379 cases have been tagged as recovered.
As to the nine additional P.3 variant cases, the DOH said, three are ROFs, four are local cases, and two cases are being verified if they are local or ROF cases.
Based on the case line list, all nine cases have recovered, it said.
The DOH, UP-PGC, and UP-NIH also reiterated that the P.3 variant is "still not identified as a variant of concern (VOC) since current data is insufficient to determine whether the variant will have significant public health implications."
The DOH, meanwhile, clarified that B.1.351 is the most common variant among the samples sequenced with assigned lineages, contrary to reports that it is now the dominant variant in the country.
The Health department said to date, UP-PGC has already sequenced a total of 7,167 samples, of which 5,917 were assigned lineages.
Among the samples with assigned lineages, the DOH said, the B.1.351 composed 18.2 percent, the B.1.1.7 composed 16.0 percent, the P.3 composed 2.7 percent, while the P.1 variant composed 0.03 percent