(Eagle News) – The Department of Health confirmed the presence of two cases of the so-called Indian variant in the country, or the variant B.1.617.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire announced this in a press briefing on Tuesday, May 11.
“Nais po nating ipaalam sa publiko na tayo po ay may natukoy na dalawang kaso na may sinabing variant (We’d like to inform the public that we have identified two cases with the said variant),” Vergeire said in an online briefing referring to the variant B.1.617, or the double mutant variant first found in India.
The two cases were from the five travelers with travel history to India who had earlier tested positive for COVID-19. They came from over a hundred people who were able to enter the country before the travel restrictions on April 29 on people with a travel history to India.
Later the country also imposed an entry ban until May 14 on passengers who had traveled to Nepal Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that despite the announcement of the DOH on the confirmed presence of the two cases of the Indian variant, there is still no evidence that there is already a community transmission of this variant in the country.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, May 11, Roque said that all travelers have been required to undergo a 14-day quarantine period where the 10 days will be spent in isolation in the quarantine center, and four days in the local isolation facility of the local government unit covering the area where the traveler came from.
The World Health Organization has tagged that B.1.617 variant is a variant of global concern. It said that there were some preliminary studies that showed it spreads more easily compared to other variants of COVID-19.
“We are classifying this as a variant of concern at a global level,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, told a briefing. “There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility.”
With this announcement, the B.1.617 variant becomes the fourth variant of global concern, following the variants first found in Britain (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and Brazil (P.1)
(Eagle News Service)
