Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III played down the possibility that the detected new mutations can be the reason behind the spike of infections in Central Visayas
“Mahirap iugnay ‘yan [It’s hard to connect it to the new mutations],” Duque said in a special media forum on Friday, Duque citing other factors that can be attributed to the rise in cases.
“Maraming factors na dapat alamin o obserbahan…Tumaas ang mobility [there was an increase in mobility] also possible ‘yan sa dahilan o maraming dahilan [it may be one of the many reasons],” said Duque.
He noted the contact rate and transmission rate also went up, which could also be reasons behind the increase in Covid cases.
Duque stressed that there should be concrete evidence first to determine the reason for the surge of Covid cases.
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) Director Celia Carlos echoed Duque by saying there is still a need to do more sequencing in Region 7 to determine that indeed the rise in cases is due to the new mutations.
Before jumping into conclusion, Carlos stressed there is a need “to have a clearer picture, of the situation.”
“We need to sequence more samples from more areas of Region 7,” Carlos said.
Dr. Alethea de Guzman, of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, meanwhile assured, that the DOH is closely investigating the situation in Region to determine why the cases in the region have increased rapidly.
“We call it sharp rise in the number of cases,” De Guzman said as she presented that as of February 18, the total confirmed cases in Region 7 stood at 35,743.
New mutations
Dr. Cynthia Saloma, University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC), said that out of 70 samples received from Region 7 on the evening of February 6, a total of 59 samples met the criteria for whole genome sequencing.
Of the 59 samples sequenced, 50 were assigned “lineages with confidence” based on the Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak LINeages or the PANGOLIN App which assigns lineages to Covid-19 sequence. Lineage is a larger groupings representing subtypes of the virus.
“Of these, 31/50 or 62 percent were initially identified to contain two mutations of concern to the global community : E484K and N501Y,” Saloma said adding that deeper analysis of the hallmark mutations, if any, of the samples from Region 7 prompted the PGC Genomic Biosurveillance Team to look closely at the whole genome sequences of the samples.
MGCQ in NCR
Meanwhile, Duque said that the transition of the National Capital Region (NCR) from GCQ to MGCQ will not be affected by the new mutations discovered in Region 7.
“NCR is a different region,” Duque said.
Earlier, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Benjamin Abalos Jr. the announced that Metro Manila mayors have already agreed to place NCR under MGCQ.
“It is a big challenge for the government to help the economy going while keeping the people safe and healthy. The Metro Manila mayors play a big role in this issue…What is important is we act as one. What is important is unity,” Abalos stressed.
While the MGCQ will be implemented soon, Duque again reminded the public to take an active part in keeping infection rates low, and ultimately reducing the chances of viral mutations, by strictly adhering to the minimum public health standards and protocols of the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate strategy.
” We have to scale up even more in the light of these variants,” Duque said stressing that the public should ” comply mote effectively and faithfully to our minimum public health standards”.
Control and containment strategies
Duque said that Dr. Jaime Bernades, DOH-7 regional director, already ordered to intensify the control and containment measures to stop the rapid increase of cases.
These include: active case finding, contact tracing up to 3rd generation, back tracing, immediate quarantine or aggressive isolation through “Oplan Kalinga”, localized lockdown, and additional samples will also be sent to PGC.
Duque also stressed the need to make sure that the utilization rate in Region 7 will maintain the safe zone level.
He also said that the DOH will monitor closely the Region 7 if the situation will improve or not.
The Covid cases in the country surged to 557, 058 on Friday.
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