MANILA – The new and more infectious strain of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first reported in the United Kingdom has been detected in the Philippines.
Health authorities initiated heightened surveillance for the new COVID-19 variant, which experts said is 70 percent more infectious than the original virus.
Yesterday, the Department of Health (DOH) said the Philippine Genome Center reported the detection of the new variant, known as B117, after samples from a Filipino who arrived from the United Arab Emirates on Jan. 7 yielded positive genome sequencing results.
The said patient, according to the DOH, was a male resident of Quezon City who departed for Dubai on Dec. 27, 2020 for business purposes and returned to the country on Jan. 7, 2021 via Emirates flight EK 332.
“The patient was swabbed and quarantined upon arrival. The positive test result was released the following day and the patient was referred to a quarantine facility in Quezon City,” the DOH said.
After his test result came back positive the following day, he was transferred to a Quezon City facility while his samples were sent to the PGC, which detected the new COVID-19 variant.
Meanwhile, the patient’s female partner tested negative for COVID-19 and is currently under “strict” quarantine and monitoring.
“Both of the returning Filipinos had no exposure to a confirmed case prior to their departure to Dubai nor had any travel activities outside Quezon City,” the DOH said.
The couple’s contacts so far been identified by authorities were asymptomatic and under strict home quarantine. Contact tracing for other passengers was underway after it secured the flight manifest.
“Meanwhile, weekly genomic biosurveillance among incoming passengers, local cases, re-infected patients, and those with reported clustering of cases will be intensified,” the department said.
British scientists said B.1.1.7 has key mutations, including one that affects the “spike” protein, which the virus uses to infect human cells. The variant is believed to have first emerged in the UK in September last year.
The Philippines has barred travel arrivals from 30 countries due to the UK variant, which has been detected in at least 41 other countries, but the UAE is not among the countries included in the ban.
Apart from the UK variant, five other variants are being monitored across the globe namely South Africa’s 501Y.V2, Malaysia’s 1701V, Nigeria’s P681H, Denmark’s Cluster 5 and China: D614G, which is most widespread and dominant./PN
