New virus variant appears in sample taken in early December

THE more contagious B.1.1.7 variant of SarsCoV-2 was found in a swab specimen collected in the Philippines on December 10, 2020, four days before it was announced in the United Kingdom (UK).

The new mutated version of the novel coronavirus was detected when the University of the Philippines (UP) Philippine Genome Center

(PGC) backtracked and undertook genome sequencing on swab specimens that were taken from October to December 2020 following the confirmation of the first B.1.1.7 case in the country.

Dr. Edsel Salvana, director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biiotechnology at the UP National Institutes of Health, said in a virtual press conference on Saturday, January 23, 2021, that the patient with the December 10, 2020 specimen may have entered the country before the variant was identified in the UK.

“Part of our due diligence was to look back and then there was one sample (that was found positive for the new variant), pero, aside from that, mukhang wala naman anywhere else,” Salvana said.

Health authorities in the UK announced the new variant on December 14, 2020, but this version of Sars-CoV-2 had first appeared in September.

In the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) first confirmed the detection of the new variant on January 13. The patient, who developed pneumonia, had traveled to Dubai and returned to the country on January 7.

Sixteen more B.1.1.7 cases were confirmed on Friday, January 22, bringing the total variant cases to 17.

One of these 16 cases is a 23-year-old male from Calamba City, Laguna, who was swabbed on December 10, said medical specialist

Alethea de Guzman of the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau. He has completed isolation.

He is among the 14 local cases with no significant exposure and travel history.

Other local cases are 12 individuals from Bontoc, Mountain Provinces and a 22-year-old male from La Trinidad, Benguet .