(UPDATED) The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday, March 13, 2021, announced that the P.1 variant (Brazil) of Sars-CoV-2 has been detected in the Philippines and the mutations detected earlier mostly in Cebu and Central Visayas have officially been designated as the P.3 variant.
The UP Philippine Genome Center (PGC) said the new P.3 variant, which was first detected in Central Visayas, has been "linked to possible increased transmissibility and immune escape in some studies."
Although further studies are still needed, the PGC on Saturday called for strengthened measures to prevent transmission of this variant to nearby islands and other countries.
In a separate statement, the DOH downplayed the significance of the P.3 variant, saying it "is not identified as a variant of concern as current available data are insufficient to conclude whether the variant will have significant public health implications."
The DOH said the P.3 variant belongs to the B.1.1.28 lineage along with the P.1 variant. This has been verified with the Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages (Pangolin).
The PGC, for its part, said the new P.3 variant contains the mutations E484K, N501Y, P681H and LGV 141-143, which are "likely to have functional significance."
"The said mutations, together with three amino acid deletion in the spike protein at positions 141 to 143, have been linked to possible increased transmissibility and immune escape in some studies," PGC said.
The PGC said further studies are needed to determine this new variant's effect on transmissibility (rate of infection), pathogenicity (severity of the disease) and immunogenicity (impact on vaccine efficacy) of Sars-CoV-2.
The earliest P.3 case was collected on January 8, 2021. The multiple mutations were first identified from a sequencing run on February 4, 2021. This variant has since been detected in all subsequent sequencing batches, according to the PGC.
"The collection dates of the samples detected to be under this lineage coincide with a sharp increase in Sars-CoV-2 infections in Central Visayas," it added.
As of March 12, there are 43,761 cases of infection in Central Visayas, with 1,655 deaths, 35,361 recoveries and 6,745 active cases.
Based on the DOH national tracker, Central Visayas has the second highest number of new cases in the last 14 days to March 11, after the National Capital Region.
New cases
Meanwhile, the DOH said the PGC has also confirmed 59 new Covid-19 cases with the B.1.1.7 variant (UK), 32 additional cases with the B.1.351 (South Africa) and 13 more cases with the P.3 variant
As of March 13, there are 177 cases with the B.1.1.7, 90 cases with the B.1.351 and 98 cases with the P.3 variant in the country.
The new cases with the variants were among the 752 coronavirus-positive samples (10th batch) sequenced by the PGC. Most of the specimens were collected from the National Capital Region (NCR), Calabarzon and Cordillera Administrative Region.
The P.1 variant, which was first detected in four travelers from Brazil in Japan, was detected in a sample taken from a returning oversease Filipino (ROF) with an address in Western Visayas. The ROF came from Brazil, DOH said in a statement.
Of the additional 59 cases with the B.1.1.7 lineage, 30 are local cases, 18 are ROFs and 11 are under verification. Sixteen are from the Cordillera, 10 from the NCR, two from Central Luzon and two from Calabarzon.
Among the new B.1.351 cases, 21 are local cases, one is an ROF and 10 are under verification. Nineteen are from the NCR, one from Cagayan Valley and one from Northern Mindanao.
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these variants of Sars-CoV-2 are highly transmissible. Studies are still being conducted to verify initial reports of higher risk of death and resistance to antibodies.
Sars-CoV-2 causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which has infected more than 119 million people worldwide as of March 13, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. More than 2.6 million people had died. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)