The Department of Health (DOH) said it is eyeing to further strengthen the country’s genome sequencing capacity in order to detect more cases of coronavirus variants.
Currently, only three institutions have the capacity to conduct genome sequencing. These are the Philippine Genome Center (PGC), University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH), and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
“We would like to expand the capacity for this whole genome sequencing not just here in Metro Manila but also having strategic hubs in the other areas of the country. So kasama po iyan sa aming plano (So that's part of our plan),” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing on Friday, May 7.
“Gusto siyempre natin lahat ng nag-popositibo nate-test natin pero hindi po ganoon ang objective ng ating sinasagawa ngayon for whole genome sequencing (Of course, we all want to test the positive (samples), but that is not the objective of what we are doing now for whole genome sequencing),” she added.
The current objective of the country’s genome sequencing efforts is to detect the type of variants, to identify areas where there are variant cases, and to determine if these variants are causing the rise or clustering of cases in a specific area.
On Thursday, infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante of San Lazaro Hospital stressed the importance of strengthening the genomic surveillance to determine the extent of the presence of the new coronavirus variants in the country.
“This is just my thought.. Our sampling is really very low. The Philippine Genome Center should look for more collaboration with other laboratories. Train more laboratories to do the sequencing, kasi sa tingin ko mukhang overwhelmed din ang agency na iyan (because I think that agency is also already overwhelmed),” he then said.
Based on the latest data of the DOH, 7,167 swab samples underwent whole genome sequencing from Jan. 4, 2021 to May 2, 2021.