The new Lambda variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has so far spread to 30 countries, has been declared a "variant of interest" by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Philippine Genome Center (PGC) Executive Director Cynthia Saloma said the Lambda variant has become "an emerging global public health risk" due to the increasing number of cases particularly in some South American nations, such as Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador.
"As to whether or not it is more deadly or gives more severe symptoms compared to Delta , sa totoo po pinag aaralan pa po yan (in fact, it is still being studied)," Saloma said during the Laging Handa public briefing on Wednesday, July 7.
"At the same time, hindi rin po natin alam kung ang kanyang transmissibility mas mataas sa Delta variant kasi kaunti pa lang ang datos dito (we also don't know if its transmissibility is higher than the Delta variant because we don't have that much data yet)," she added.
The Delta variant has been confirmed to be highly transmissible and was declared as "variant of concern" by the WHO.
It has reached at least 80 countries since it was first detected in India.
While it has been detected in 19 Filipinos, no community transmission has happened so far in the country.
Saloma clarified that the Lambda variant did not emerge from the Delta variant.
"Yung kanilang mutation signatures magkaiba pero may pagkakapareho din sila for example in the spike region of the virus (Their mutation signatures are different but they also have similarities for example in the spike region of the virus)," she explained.
"Na-establish na sa (It has been established by the) Public Health England na yung (that the) Delta variant is highly transmissible by about 60 percent more than the Alpha variant. Yung R naught is between 5 to 8. Yung Lambda, hindi pa natin alam (For the Lambda variant, we don't know yet)," she added.
However, she noted that in countries where the new variant has been detected, "mataas ang cases ng Lambda variant at the same time mataas ang kanilang case fatality rate kaya binabantayan talaga natin ito (Lambda variant cases are high and at the same time their case fatality rate is high so we are closely monitoring this variant)."
Citing an international publication, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, Saloma also said that "based on laboratory experiments nila nakikita nila na may tendency ng increased transmissibility at meron ding immune evasion (they saw that the Lambda variant has a tendency of increased transmissibility as well as immune evasion)."
Saloma assured that the PGC continues to monitor all COVID-19 variants of concern and interest.
"Sa ating nearly 8,000 na na-whole genome sequencing since January wala pa tayong nakita ni isang C.37 variant or Lambda variant (Of the nearly 8,000 samples that have underwent whole genome sequencing since January we have not detected a single sample with C.37 variant or Lambda variant)," she said.