Manila raises alarm over South African virus variant

MANILA: Health experts on Wednesday expressed alarm over the detection of six confirmed cases of the South African COVID-19 variant in the country as they called for “fast containment measures” due to warnings that the virus was more contagious.

In a related development, Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, announced that 487,200 doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine are to arrive on Thursday night as part of the shipment allocated to the Philippines through the COVAX facility of the World Health organisation (WHO).

“This is to confirm that the Philippines is set to receive 487,200 doses of Astrazeneca vaccine tomorrow (Thursday), March 4, 7:30 pm as part of the COVAX facility,” Roque said in a text message to Malacanang Palace reporters.

Roque added that President Duterte would also lead in the welcome ceremonies for the Astrazeneca vaccine whose arrival scheduled on March 1, has been delayed due to “supply problems.”

Duterte likewise headed the group of top government officials who welcomed the arrival of 600,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine donated by China when these arrived aboard a Chinese military plane on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire warned the detection of six confirmed cases of the South African COVID 19 variant followed that from the UK could have an adverse effect on the ongoing inoculation programme of the country’s frontline health workers which started on Monday.

“Both the UK and the South African variants have higher transmissibility so they can infect more people,” Vergeire told an online media briefing.

“But the South Africa variant has a mutation or component that affects vaccine efficacy so the South Africa variant is monitored more because of the phenomenon of immune escape.”

Immune escape, she explained, refers to the particular variant’s capability to affect the process of producing antibodies against the coronavirus, thereby reducing efficacy of the vaccine.