Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 24) — The Philippines has not yet reported infections from the new coronavirus strain that emerged in the United Kingdom, even as other countries confirming positive cases from the variant, a DOST official said Thursday.
Jaime Montoya, executive director of the Department of Science and Techology – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, said in a briefing that the government is monitoring developments on the mutated strain, which is reported to be a more infectious virus variant.
“Base sa ating nalalaman, wala pa tayong reports na nandyan na yung variant,” Montoya said during the Laging Handa briefing. “Base sa resulta na nakikita natin, ito po ay mas nakakahawa….pero ito ay patuloy na minomonitor ng authorities.”
[Translation: Based on what we know, we still have no reports that the variant has reached the country. Based on the results that we see, this strain is more infectious…but authorities continue to monitor it.]
Citing latest developments in the UK, Montoya said this new strain has not shown that it can undermine the efficacy of existing vaccines that have already been developed. This will also be part of their surveillance efforts on new cases that will be reported in the country, he said.
“Tingin ko wala pa po itong epekto ngayon sa efficacy ng vaccine,” Montoya said. “Kasama po ito sa minomonitor, titingan iyong mga viruses at imo-monitor rin natin yung levels ng antibodies sa ilang mga pasyente kung may epekto nga ba ito sa efficacy ng vaccine.”
[Translation: I think that this will not affect the efficacy of vaccines. But this is part of the things that we will monitor, we will look out for the viruses and the levels of antibodies on some patients will be checked to see if this has an effect on the efficacy of the vaccine.]
On Monday, the Department of Health said that while no new variant of the virus has been detected in the Philippines yet, it will ramp up its monitoring efforts to prepare the country against the new strain.
Two days later, the Philippines temporarily banned all flights from the UK from December 24 to December 31 due to the threats of the virus, after other countries in Europe, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East closed their borders.
READ: Philippines suspends all flights from UK from Dec. 24 to 31
CNN reported that England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, warned that the new COVID-19 strain can be up to 70% more transmissible than the earlier, more dominant type of virus. He said the new variant is responsible for 60% of infections in London, which have nearly doubled in the last week.
As of Thursday, Singapore and Northern Ireland were among the countries that confirmed positive cases of the COVID-19 variant from UK.
The Philippines last reported 1,196 more COVID-19 cases, adding to 464,004 cases in the country. A total of 9,048 succumbed to the disease while 429,972 have recovered.
