The Philippines on Friday detected 52 additional cases of the South African (B.1.351) COVID-19 variant, 31 more cases of the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7) variant, and 42 mutations of interest.
Out of the 52 additional South African variant cases, 41 have indicative addresses in the National Capital Region, while 11 cases are currently being verified whether they are local cases or returning overseas Filipinos. One case from the NCR has recovered while the remaining 51 cases are currently being managed.
In the case of the new 31 active UK variant cases, 28 also have indicative addresses in the NCR while the locations of the other three are under verification.
“We should all be concerned about this. The number of cases we found is only because we’re still collecting samples through surveillance testing,” Dr. John Wong, epidemiologist and member of IATF TWG on data analytics, explained.
“As we collect more samples, we’ll be able to see more. The cases we see now are not the maximum number, there could be more than that,” Wong projected.
The OCTA Research Group has also observed a continuous spike of COVID-19 cases in the NCR, with a 900-case daily average.
“That is almost 50 percent compared to two weeks ago, 50 percent increase. So alam mo ‘yun (You know), this is a serious cause for concern,” Prof. Ranjit Rye of OCTA reported.
Wong enumerated three means to determine if the variants are causing the surge, including:
• Person – trace the close contacts of a person with the new variant
• Place – compare areas with and without the new variants
• Time – If there’s an increase by the time a specimen was sampled
“There’s some indirect evidence na (that) the variant is causing the surge… Whether or not this is variant-driven, the fact that COVID-19 cases have been rising since February, it’s sufficient enough to get people to do more,” Wong stressed. – Report from Mark Fetalco
