Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday said that no XE, XD and XF recombinants of Covid-19 have been detected yet in the country.
“The latest sequencing result was last March kung saan makapagsabi tayo na sa ngayon ang atin pong [wherein we can say that our] Omicron variant is almost 80 percent of the samples na na-detect sa pinakahuli nating [detected in the latest genome sequencing ] run,” Vergeire said in an online media forum.
Vergeire added that two Delta variant cases were detected in Regions 2 and 6.
“Maliban po diyan wala na po tayong nakitang na iba pang variant o sublineages nitong Omicron variant [aside from that, we have not seen any variant or sublineages of this Omicron variant],” Vergeire said.
Vergeire also said that the University of the Philippines (UP), through its Philippine Genome Center (PGC) in UP Visayas and in UP Mindanao, has been doing its own run of genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 from community samples in both island groups.
The fully-equipped satellite facilities, made possible through the joint efforts of UP, Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Health (DOH), and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), have begun genome sequencing services of nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swab samples from DOH-licensed Covid-19 testing laboratories in cooperation with the DOH – Epidemiology Bureau (DOH-EB), to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
Early this year, UP-PGC Visayas started working with the Western Visayas Medical Center for the collection and viral RNA extraction of samples prior to sequencing.
To date, UP-PGC Visayas has successfully sequenced more than 300 samples and has submitted the results to the DOH-EB for analysis and endorsement to the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Units (RESUs).
The RESUs report the sequencing results to their respective local government units (LGUs) to put into place a well-planned strategy to mitigate the transmission of circulating variants in the concerned areas.
Similarly, the UP-PGC Mindanao team is working with the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) for the sequencing of samples from Mindanao.
Last February, 98 extracted SARS-CoV-2 RNA samples from the SPMC were transported by RESU Davao to PGC Mindanao for processing for whole genome sequencing.
The samples were analyzed using the bioinformatics pipeline technology and results were forwarded to the DOH-EB.
The national effort for genomic biosurveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is a collaboration among different agencies.
Laboratories and other institutions, through a coordinated chain of roles and responsibilities, aims to provide local and national authorities with data and scientific evidence on the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants in the archipelago.