Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 27) — In order to properly monitor the new coronavirus variant that emerged in the United Kingdom, the health sector seeks a budget to conduct genomic sequencing in the Philippines, which can be included in the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act.
In a briefing on Sunday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III asked the three institutions to formally submit their requests on budgetary requirements to detect and study developments on the new variant of COVID-19, which is seen to transmit more easily than other variants.
Three main institutions were tasked to study the genome sequence of samples from reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) swab tests that were taken in November and December. These are the Philippine Genome Center, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, and the University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health.
“I would like to ask our experts, the three laboratories with the capability to do such surveillance to come up with a consolidated budgetary requirement so that we can already include this [in the budget],” Duque said.
“Madaling magsalita eh pero kung walang pondo, mahihirapan tayo…gusto ko lang malaman magkano yung pangkalahatang budget support na kinakailangan and we already have to include this in the GAA,” he added.
[Translation: It’s easy to speak but if you don’t have the appropriate funds, we will have a hard time…I just want to know how much is the overall budget support that you need and we already have to include this in the GAA.]
Health experts present in the briefing described genomic sequencing as their way of inspecting a genetic material, to evaluate whether the UK variant has mutated into another form that poses more serious risks.
“Tool po ito para malaman natin kung nagbabago iyong anyo ng virus at kung may dapat ikabahala,” Dr. Ed Salvana of the Department of Health Technical Advisory Group said.
[Translation: This is a tool for us to know whether the form of the virus changes and whether there’s something that we should look out for.]
According to Philippine Genome Center executive director Cynthia Saloma, the SARS-COV-2 variant from England is not closely related to D614G, the mutated COVID-19 variant found in the Philippines in June. However, sequencing would further help them detect even “minute changes” on the new variant
On Saturday’s meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte and members of the Task Force for the Management for Emerging Infectious Diseases, health experts also raised the need to include high-risk groups, clusters with increased cases, workplaces and public transportation in the sequencing and sampling process to further intensify the country’s surveillance.
Duterte approved on Saturday the extension of ban on flights from the UK for two more weeks after Dec. 31. Duque said they will only consider a travel ban on other countries if there is community transmission recorded in the traveler’s country of origin.
The President is expected to sign the 2021 GAA into law on December 28, and veto some provisions on certain unconstitutional insertions.
So far, the Department of Health places third among the government agencies with the highest budget allocations. Of the proposed ₱ 4.5 trillion national budget, the DOH has ₱287.4 billion, mostly intended for vaccine procurement and other pandemic-related responses.
