The Department of Health (DOH) is still waiting for the official World Health Organization (WHO) statement regarding the status of COVID-19 variant transmission in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus Bubble.
This was after WHO country representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said in a media interview this week that there is a variant transmission, particularly those initially detected in South Africa and United Kingdom, in the NCR Plus.
“We still have not received from WHO an official statement to inform us that based on their assessment, there is already community transmission among these variants that we have already detected here in the country,” DOH USec. Maria Rosario Vergeire said in their May 28 briefing.
Community transmission is declared when cases can no longer be linked to each other. The DOH confirmed last March that all cities in NCR have either recorded variants B.1.1.7 from the UK or B.1.3.5.5 from South Africa.
Both were considered variants of concern due to evidence showing that they are more transmissible. As of May 18, NCR has the greatest number of cases on the said variants.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases continue to decline in the region, and COVID-related deaths have been on a downtrend since May 7.
The DOH said the over 200 reported deaths reported on May 27 are due to delayed reporting.
“Bumababa po ang mga deaths natin dito sa NCR Plus, pero kailangan pa rin po naming bantayan dahil nakikita naman po namin mayroong pagtaas naman ng pagkakamatay sa ibang lugar dito sa ating bansa,” Vergeire said. – Report from Mark Fetalco/AG-rir
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