Lambda variant not yet a cause for alarm; Delta still primary threat in Philippines —OCTA

The Lambda coronavirus variant, first detected in Peru, may have been already detected in the Philippines, but there is no cause for alarm yet, the OCTA Research group said on Monday.

The Delta variant, first identified in India, is still the primary threat in the country, it added.

"Variant of interest ang Lambda. Hindi pa naman siya variant of concern. Kulang pa ang impormasyon kung mas nakakahawa siya o vaccine resistant siya," OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said in an interview on Unang Balita on Monday.

(The Lambda variant is a variant of interest. It is not yet a variant of concern. There is still a lack of information if it is more transmissible or is vaccine resistant.)

"Wala pa tayong masyadong impormasyon. Hindi pa tayo puwedeng maging alarmed sa Lambda variant. Ang Delta variant talaga ang pinaka-primary threat dito sa ating bansa sa ngayon," he added.

(We do not have enough information yet. We cannot be alarmed yet about the Lambda variant. The Delta variant is the primary threat in the country now.)

"Hindi naman ibig sabihin i-overlook natin ang Lambda. Babantayan din natin 'yon," Guido said.

(It does not mean we will overlook the Lambda [variant]. We will also monitor it.)

The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday said the country had its first Lambda variant case.

The DOH said the first Lambda variant case is a 35-year-old female and is a local case.

It said the patient was asymptomatic and tagged as recovered after undergoing the 10-day isolation period.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante, chairman of the Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine unit of San Lazaro Hospital, on Sunday said the Lambda variant has the potential to become a variant of concern.

The Lambda variant's mutations are similar to the Delta variant, he added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) classified the Lambda variant as a variant of interest on June 14.

The WHO identifies a coronavirus variant as a variant of interest if, among other criteria, it "has been identified to cause community transmission...or has been detected in multiple countries."

A variant of interest becomes a variant of concern when it is associated with an "increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; [an] increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation; or [a] decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics."

Meanwhile, the DOH on Sunday also reported 182 new cases of the Delta variant, raising the country's total to 807.

The DOH said 112 of the latest Delta vases are local, 36 are returning overseas Filipinos, and 34 are still undergoing verification.

Further, the DOH also detected 41 more Alpha variant cases, 66 Beta cases, and 40 cases of the P.3 variant.

The country now has a total of 2,232 Alpha cases and 2,483 Beta cases.

Meanwhile, among the 40 new P.3 variant cases, 37 are local cases and three cases are still being verified. All cases have been tagged as recovered. —KG, GMA News