The Department of Health announced that it has detected six cases of the more transmissible COVID-19 variant from South Africa.
The DOH said that six cases of the South Africa variant, also known as B.1.351, were detected by the Philippine Genome Center when they conducted genome sequencing of the samples from COVID-19 patients.
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Three cases are considered as local cases in Pasay City, another two cases came from overseas Filipino workers and one is still being verified.
Samples of local cases were collected between January 27 and February 13, 2021. Two of the local cases, a 61-year-old female and a 39-year-old male, are active cases being managed by Pasay City. The third local case, a 40-year-old male, has already recovered.
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The two OFW cases came from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Meanwhile, 30 new cases of the variant from the United Kingdom were also recorded in the country. This brings the total number of B.1.1.7 cases in the country to 87. (TDT)
