(Eagle News) – The Department of Health (DOH) has detected the first case of the Lambda variant in the country.
The Philippines’ first confirmed Lambda variant case is a 35-year old female, but the DOH is still verifying if she is a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) or a local.
The department is also tracing her close contacts. She is reportedly asymptomatic and tagged as recovered after a 10-day isolation period.
The Lambda variant is said to be more infectious than other variants and could have higher immune escape mechanisms, according to a research in Chile.
-PHL Delta variant cases reach 807-
Aside from this first Lambda variant case, the DOH also reported the detection of 182 additional Delta variant cases, bringing the total Delta cases in the country to 807.
Of the 182 new Delta variant cases, 112 are local cases, 36 are returning overseas Filipino (ROFs), and 34 are being verified if they are local or ROF cases.
However, only one case is confirmed to still be active. Four have died, while 176 have been tagged as recovered. One case is still being verified.
Here are the breakdown of the 112 new local Delta variant cases:
– 42 have addresses in Metro Manila;
– 36 are from Central Luzon;
– eight are from Region 4-A or Calabarzon;
– six from Mimaropa:
– six from Northern Mindanao;
– four from Central Visayas;
– three from Davao Region:
– three from Caraga:
– two from Western Visayas;
-one case each in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)
-More Alpha, Beta, Theta cases-
The DOH also detected 41 new Alpha variant cases, 66 Beta cases, and 40 Theta cases, based on the latest genomic sequencing report of the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center and the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health.
Earlier, Chilean researchers who studied the Lambda variant noted “the presence of critical mutations in the spike protein.”
Concerned about the “impact of such mutations in infectivity and immune escape from neutralizing antibodies,” Chilean scientists and researchers Mónica L. Acevedo, Luis Alonso-Palomares, Andrés Bustamante, Aldo Gaggero, Fabio Paredes, Claudia P. Cortés, Fernando Valiente-Echeverría, and Ricardo Soto-Rifo conducted their study on Santiago City health workers. The results of their study which had not yet been peer reviewed was published on July 1 in the medRxiv preprint server for health sciences.
The health workers who were the subject of their study received two doses of CoronaVac vaccine of Sinovac.
According to another research pre-print published in medRxiv, the Lambda variant “accounts for 97% of Peruvian public genomes in April 2021.”
(Eagle News Service)
