The Department of Health said that all cities in Metro Manila have reported cases of the more infectious UK and South Africa COVID-19 variants.
“We saw that these variants are now in all cities here in Metro Manila. That is factual,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.
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“In all of the cities, we have either the UK variant or the South Africa variant. Also in other cities, they have both UK variants and South Africa variants,” she added.
The health official said that the presence of these variants drives the current surge in COVID-19 cases.
The DOH on the other hand did not confirm if there is an ongoing community transmission of the two variants.
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The Philippines has so far detected B.1.1.7 (UK variant) in 223 cases, the B.1.351 (South Africa variant) in 152 cases, and the P.1 (Brazil variant) in one case.
Another variant unique to the Philippines has been discovered but experts have yet to determine if it’s still a variant of concern. (TDT)
