(Eagle News) — The Philippines has detected the UK variant of the COVID-19 virus in 19 more cases in the Philippines.
The Department of Health said the development brought the total COVID-19 cases with the UK variant in the country to 44.
The DOH said the additional cases were part of the sixth batch of 718 samples sequenced by the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center on February 8.
“The sixth batch of samples were sourced from all regions, except BARMM, and were selected to ensure representation of each region as well as areas where spikes in cases have been reported,” it said.
According to the DOH, of the additional cases, three were a 10-year-old male, a 54-year-old female, and a 33-year-old male.
They had indicated current addresses in Region XI.
All are active cases with mild symptoms.
Two of the cases have an indicated address in CALABARZON.
One is a 20-year-old female who has unknown exposure while the other a 76-year-old female who was exposed to a positive case last January 21.
The DOH said that eight are returning overseas Filipinos, aged between 28 and 53.
Two have recovered while six are in isolation facilities.
It was still unclear if the last six additional cases are local cases or returning overseas Filipinos.
The DOH has reported over 545,000 COVID-19 cases so far.
