The number of pending samples sent by the City Health Office (CHO) to Metro Manila for genome sequencing now increased to 198 to check for posible new Covid variant spreading in the city.
The City Health Officer Dr. Dulce Amor D. Miravite said, the first batch consisting of 39 samples were sent to Manila last March 25, 2021
For the second batch, they sent 97 samples and 62 samples for the third batch respectively. Miravite however did not gave specific dates as to when the second and third batch were sent for sequencing.
These samples came from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients. The Samples were sent to the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) for genome sequencing.
“With the spike of the cases, and since the nature of the virus is to mutate, it is possible that we have a new variant in the city,” Miravite said.
However, till now, there are no results yet on these samples coming from the UP-PGC according to Miravite.
The city is currently experiencing more than 100 cases a day.
In the Philippines, currently there are four variants: the United Kingdom (B117), South African variants (B1351), B.1.617.2 or the Indian variant, and the variant detected in the Philippines (P3).
All of these variants cause the increased transmissibility of Covid 19.
Currently the city has 8,439 Covid cases, 5,774 recovered, 2,359 active cases, and 306 deaths as of May 15, 2021. (R.G. Antonet A. Go)