DOH eyes expanding capacity for genome sequencing

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said it plans to expand the country’s whole genome sequencing capacity to detect more cases of coronavirus variants.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said only the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health, and Philippine Genome Center currently have the capacity for genome sequencing.

“We would like to expand the capacity for this whole genome sequencing not just here in Metro Manila but also having strategic hubs in the other areas of the country,” she said in an online briefing.

An infectious disease expert earlier said more laboratories must be trained to conduct genome sequencing because the country’s sampling is “really very low.” 

The Philippines has over a million COVID-19 cases but only 7,167 samples have been sequenced so far, 1,075 of which were positive for the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant, 948 for the B.1.1.7 (United Kingdom), 157 for the P.3 (Philippines), and two for the P.1 (Brazil) variant. 

“Gusto natin siyempre lahat ng nagpopositibo na-te-test natin [for variants] pero hindi po ganon ang objective ng ating sinasagawa ngayon (Of course we want to test all positive cases for variants but that is not our objective right now),” Vergeire said.

She explained that the country’s genome sequencing efforts are currently focused on detecting coronavirus variants, determining where these variants are, and studying whether these variants are causing an increase or clustering of cases in certain areas.

“What we are doing is biosurveillance… Longer term ay malaman natin ‘yung dominant variant, malaman po din natin kung ano ano na talaga yung spread (We will determine which variant is dominant and what the extent of the spread is),” she said. — RSJ, GMA News