The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed the presence of the Brazil variant of COVID-19, coming from a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from Brazil.
DOH stated that the person infected with the P.1 variant from Brazil is from Western Visayas.
This is the third variant from overseas found in the Philippines, after the UK and South African variants.
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To date, there are 177 cases of the UK variants, and 90 cases of the variant from South Africa.
Meanwhile, authorities are also looking into a new COVID-19 variant called P.3 that was first reported in the Philippines.
A case had been detected in Japan in a traveler from the Philippines, according to reports from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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DOH states that the P.3 variant is from the B.1.1.28 lineage, similar to the P.1 variant.
It added that there are 98 cases of the P.3 variant in the Philippines. Of this number, 85 cases were mutations of E484K and N501Y, and were identified as “mutations of possible clinical significance”.
However, DOH clarified that the P.3 variant doesn’t have enough available current data for it to be considered as a “variant of concern” citing that data “are insufficient to conclude whether the variant will have significant public health implications.”
