Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18) — The Philippine Genome Center is expanding its research to study the new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other possible mutations of the virus that is causing coronavirus infections.
Dr. Cynthia Saloma, the center’s executive director, said on Tuesday the agency is planning to look at more positive COVID-19 test results nationwide to determine if the new mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called G614 is the new dominant strain in the country.
“We intend to expand our study to the rest of the country,” Saloma told CNN Philippines. “We are going to collect about 900 samples form different time points, meaning to say from March up to October.”
The research center will also keep watch of other possible mutations of the virus, she said.
“It is also important that we don’t only focus on this particular kind of mutation but with other variants that could be circulating in the Philippines,” she said.
Filipino researchers confirmed that the new dominant strain of coronavirus was recently detected in the country based on a small sample taken from Quezon City.
Saloma said the Philippine Genome Center and the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine found that three out of the five sequences studied in June contained the G614 strain, while all nine samples taken from Quezon City in July showed the mutated strain.
“It is imperative for us to widen our study and see whether if this reflects the mutational landscape in our country,” she said.
G614 has almost completely replaced the first version named D614, making it the most dominant coronavirus strain circulating worldwide. International researchers found G614 to be more infectious, but local health officials are saying there is no direct evidence that it is transmitted more easily.
A global study published in the journal Cell in July said the new version seems to multiply faster in the upper respiratory tract — the nose, sinuses and throat, which would explain why it passes around more easily. But the bright side is that patients infected with the new strain of the coronavirus were not more severely affected, according to the study.
Saloma also assured the recently-detected G614 coronavirus mutation will not affect the quality of COVID-19 vaccines being created by pharmaceutical companies around the world.
