The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said the new Covid-19 variant that has been reported in Indonesia has not yet been detected in the Philippines.
This has been confirmed by the University of the Philippines (UP) – Philippine Genome Center and UP- National Institute of Health.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the PGC continues to detect the same variants of concern: B.1.1.7 (UK variant), the B.1.351 (South Africa variant), and the P.3. The P.3., she said, is still under investigation.
“Wala pa tayong nakikitang ganito [We have not seen this yet],” Vergeire said referring to the new variant, which contains the E484K mutation.
According to reports, this new variant, nicknamed “Eek”, is more transmissible and known for reducing vaccine protection. Its mutation was found in variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil.
Some scientists gave the nickname Eek for its apparent ability to evade natural immunity from previous Covid-19 infections and to reduce protection offered by current vaccines.
Covid cases
As of 4 p.m. of April 7, the DOH logged a total of 6,414 new cases, 163 recoveries and 242 deaths.
The Covid-19 cases in the country stood at 819, 164.
Of the 19.4 percent (158,701) active cases, 78.9 percent (646,404) have recovered, and 1.72 percent (14,059) have died.
The DOH also clarified that the” relatively lower” number of cases recorded is due to the low number of samples received by laboratories last April 5, 2021.
Moreover, 133 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
Five laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System on April 6, 2021.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes