Philippines detects 52 more cases of South Africa coronavirus variant

The Philippines on Friday detected the more transmissible South Africa coronavirus variant in 52 COVID-19 cases and the United Kingdom variant in 31 additional patients.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the newest cases were detected in the ninth batch of genome sequencing conducted by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).

“Nakapagtala po ng 52 additional B.1.351 variant, ito ‘yung kinilala bilang South Africa variant. Meron po tayong 31 additional B.1.1.7 variant, ito naman ‘yung UK variant and 42 additional cases with mutations of potential clinical significance,” he said in a briefing. 

These figures bring the total number of South Africa variant cases to 58, UK variant cases to 118, and cases with mutations of concern to 85.

Duque said 41 of the 52 newly reported South Africa variant cases are from Metro Manila, while the location of the 11 other cases is still being verified.

“Forty out of 41 naman sa NCR cases ang active, ‘yung isa po ay recovered na,” he said.

Meanwhile, the DOH said 28 of the 31 new UK variant cases are from Metro Manila and three are still under verification. All newly reported cases are still active.

Among the 42 new cases with mutations of concern, 34 are from Central Visayas, six are from Metro Manila, and two are still under verification.

“Twenty-two of the 34 cases from Region 7 are now recovered. Meanwhile, the remaining 12 Region 7 cases, all 6 NCR cases, and both cases being verified are tagged as active cases,” the DOH said.

Duque said 350 samples were sequenced by the PGC in the latest round.

The new variant cases were reported as the OCTA Research group noted that Metro Manila averaged over 900 new COVID-19 cases daily over the past week, a 50% increase from the previous week and a 119% rise from two weeks ago. 

The Philippines has logged 584,667 infections with 535,037 recoveries and 12,404 deaths as of Thursday afternoon. 

The country’s COVID-19 vaccination program began with the rollout of 600,000 doses from China’s Sinovac on Monday.

Over 480,000 AstraZeneca doses were also delivered to the country on Thursday night. 

The World Health Organization has maintained that the AstraZeneca jab is still effective even in areas with a large number of South Africa variant cases, amid concerns that the variant can lead to reduced vaccine efficacy. —KBK, GMA News