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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DOH: UK, South African COVID-19 variants present in all Metro Manila cities

DOH: UK, South African COVID-19 variants present in all Metro Manila cities

Published Mar 22, 2021 03:16 pm

The Department of Health said the United Kingdom and South Africa coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) variants are now in all cities in Metro Manila.

(Photo by Miggy Hilario / AFP / FILE PHOTO)

"Hindi natin ipagkakaila na nakita na natin na itong mga variants ay nasa lahat na ng cities dito sa Metro Manila. At yan ay factual na (We cannot deny that we can already see these variants in all cities here in Metro Manila. That is a fact),"  DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual forum on Monday, March 22. 

"Nakita na natin na in all of the cities meron na tayong either UK or South African variant. In other cities, meron pa sila both UK and South African variants (We see this in all of the cities we have either UK or the South Africa variant. In other cities, they have both the UK and South Africa variants)," she added.

With this, Vergeire said, “so we can say the variants are here and it has contributed to the increase in the number of cases.”

But, she said, there are also other factors that contributed to the increase of cases in the country such as the non-compliance in health protocols and some other institutional gaps.

Vergeire said as of now, they need to confer with the World Health Organization (WHO)  to find out if there is local or community transmission already.

"We ask help from WHO for guidance and confirmation if there really is local or community transmission of these variants," she said.

The country has already recorded 223 UK variant cases and 152 South African variant cases.

This is aside from the 104 cases of the P.3 variants, which was first detected in the Philippines.

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