Too early to say if UK strain spreading across PHL–DOH

DESPITE the confirmed cases of B117 in the country rising to 17, the Department of Health (DOH) said it is too early to determine if the more infectious variant of Covid-19 from the United Kingdom (UK) is already spreading across the country.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they are still testing additional samples, particularly in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), to determine if the B117 is already being transmitted locally en masse.

“We cannot say that it is already conclusive, that the variances are here and existing just because we got one from the south and from the north. We still need further evidence and that is what we are going to get because for this coming run, we were able to get samples across the region,” Vergeire said in an online press briefing on Monday,

“So, we will be able to determine if really—based from how we have collected the specimens now which is more rational and equally distributed—we will see if there are existing variants across the country,” she added.

New cases

THE first local case of B117 was a Filipino who traveled from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before returning to Quezon City.

The University of the Philippines-philippine Genome Center has since then identified 16 additional cases. Of these, 12 are from Bontoc, Mt. Province. They were infected after being exposed to one person who tested positive for B117 in households, workplaces and public placed.

The provinces of Benguet, Iloilo, Rizal and Laguna each recorded a case of B117.

“Based on available data, the case in Calamba City is not linked to a case from La Trinidad or Bontoc. We are still verifying if there is a link between the La Trinidad case from the Bontoc case,” Vergeire said.

Extended lockdown

VERGEIRE said they are now conducting contact tracing for the people who interacted with those infected with B117.

In the case of Bontoc, she said the government deployed an additional 50 contact tracers to help the local government unit (LGU) locate those who interacted with the 12 people who tested positive for B117.

Currently, 144 people were already identified to have had close contacts with the infected patients from Bontoc.

In an interview with PTV, Bontoc Mayor Franklin Odsey said they already placed five barangays under lockdown until January 31, 2021 as a precaution against the possible spread of B117.

Odsey said that, through their containment efforts, they hope there won’t be a need to expand the lockdown beyond the five barangays, or become a municipal-wide lockdown.

DOH recommended extending the lockdown for another two weeks.