Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the surge in COVID-19 infections in the country could not be attributed yet to the G variant of SARS-CoV-2, which was detected in June.
The Department of Health (DOH) official clarified after the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) reported earlier that the strain D614G or the “G” variant was detected in a small sample of COVID-19 patients from Quezon City.
“Together with the observation that G614 is now the dominant viral state, the authors claim that the said mutation can increase the viral rate of transmission,” the PGC said.
Dr. Edsel Salvaña, a member of the government’s Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) technical advisory group, earlier said the surge of transmissions in July could have been partly due to the G variant. However, the PCG had not detected it in the Philippines at the time.
“The D614G mutation makes the virus more infectious (mas nakakahawa)… It can spread faster and overwhelm our healthcare system if we don’t double our control efforts, and so it can lead to a higher number of overall deaths,” he had said.
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DOH studying if COVID-19 G strain caused surge in infections
“Ang RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine), nag-aaral na ng genome sequencing since March. Itong G14 and G15 variant, taken from Quezon City, pero maliit na sample lang, nakita noong June,” Vergeire said.
“Pinag-aaralan ito hindi para makita ang variants but to understand paano nagpo-progress itong disease. They will be providing us with information kapag may mas kumpleto na silang detalye,” she added.
In the United States, Scientists at Scripps Research also noted the G variant increased the number of infections that characterize SARS-CoV-2.
As of August 19, the Philippines logged a total of 169,213 COVID-19 cases, of which 53,665 are active cases. The number of recoveries is 112,861, and fatalities are 2,687.
The Philippines’ positivity rate is at 10.4%, more than double the 5% threshold of a well-managed pandemic response set by the World Health Organization.
Vergeire explained COVID-19 cases are increasing due to the country’s expanded testing.
“Our testing capacity is three times more than Indonesia,” Vergeire said.