HEALTH authorities on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, said six infections with the South Africa variant, 30 additional UK variant cases and two more cases with mutations have been detected.
These cases, found among the eighth batch of 350 samples sequenced by the UP-Philippine Genome Center (PGC), were reported a day after the government kicked off its vaccination program against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
In a statement, the Department of Health (DOH) said three South Africa variant cases are residents of Pasay City and two are returning overseas Filipinos (ROF). The location of the sixth case was still being verified as of Tuesday.
The South Africa variant of Sars-CoV-2, or B.1.351, has not been proven to cause a more severe form of Covid-19, DOH said.
But “the pattern of mutations within this variant suggests higher transmissibility and may have an impact on vaccine efficacy,” it added. Among the vaccines under development, only the Novavax and Janssen were reported to be partially efficacious against this variant.
Samples from the three Pasay City residents were collected between January 27 and February 13.
Two are active cases, a 61-year-old female and a 39-year-old male. They are being managed by the local government unit.
The third, a 40-year-old male, has recovered.
The two ROFs arrived in the country from UAE and Qatar. DOH said they were still verifying their status.
B.1.1.7 variant
The 30 additional cases with the B.1.1.7 or UK variant include 20 ROFs, three local cases, and seven who have yet to be classified as local or ROF.
These brought the total B.1.1.7 variant cases in the Philippines to 87.
The DOH statement said the 30 newly detected cases were added to the 57 existing cases.
The PGC had originally found a total of 62 B.1.1.7 cases, but upon submission of the sequencing data to the Global Initiative on Sharing of All Influenza Data (GISAID), five were reclassified as belonging to other variants.
The 20 ROFs with the B.1.1.7 variant came from the Middle East, Singapore, and the United States of America between January 20 and February 16.
Thirteen are asymptomatic active cases while seven have recovered.
Three local cases all came from the Cordillera Administrative Region.
One case is active and admitted to a hospital, one has recovered and one was a reported fatality, bringing the mortalities from B.1.1.7 to two.
DOH said it was still investigating whether these 30 additional cases were linked to the cluster of B.1.1.7 cases reported earlier.
Mutations
PGC also found two additional cases with mutations of interest from Central Visayas region.
These brought the total number of cases in Central Visayas to 34, since two cases were delisted upon further verification.
These cases were found to contain both the N501Y and E484K mutations.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the N501Y mutation was found in the B.1.1.7 lineage, which was first announced in the United Kingdom (UK).
The B.1.351 lineage, which was found in South Africa, contains both the N501Y and E484K mutations as well as another mutation K417N.
The N501Y and E484K mutations were also found in the P.1 variant that was reported by Japan in four travelers from Brazil. The P.1 lineage also contains the mutation K417T.
DOH reiterated the need to adhere to minimum public health standards as “the best course of action to prevent community transmission and further virus mutations.”
The agency called on LGUs to be on heightened alert to monitor, detect and report unusual spikes in cases in their area. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)