The World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to give its official assessment if there is already a community transmission of the different coronavirus variants in the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby areas, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that they are still awaiting an official word from the WHO.
“Well up to now, we still have not received from the WHO an official statement to inform us that there is this, based on their assessment, that there is already community transmission among these variants that we have already detected here in the country,” said Vergeire in an online forum on Friday, May 28.
“But of course, there has been this assumption already even before dahil nakikita naman po natin na talagang tumataas ang bilang ng mga taong na-identify natin with these variants (because we are seeing that the number of people we have identified with these variants is really increasing),” she added.
Based on the recent data of DOH, there were 967 cases of B.1.1.7 variant (first found in United Kingdom) detected in the country; 1,109 cases of B.1.351 (first found in South Africa); 12 cases of B.1.617.2 (first found in India); two cases of P.1 (first found in Brazil); and 158 cases of P.3 variant (first found in the Philippines).
The DOH spokesperson reminded the public to strictly follow the health protocols to minimize their risk of contracting COVID-19.
“Kahit ano pa hong variant ang meron tayo dito sa ating bansa, pareho pa rin ang kailangan nating gawin. Hindi po porque may community transmission ay talaga naman pong matatakot na tayo ng husto (No matter what variant we have here in our country, we still have to do the same. We must not be completely scared with the variants),” she said.
“Let me just reiterate that whatever variants we have right now, whether we have community transmission or not, we still do the same response---we protect ourselves by complying with the health protocols and having ourselves vaccinated,” she added.