UP doc: Cases of new variants only 2% of Philippine COVID infections

Cases of new coronavirus variants from the United Kingdom and from South Africa only account for at least 2% of COVID-19 infections in the country, Dr. Edsel Salvana of the UP Manila-National Institute of Health said Wednesday.

Salvana, who also serves as the Director of the UP-NIH Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, made the disclosure two days after the Department of Health announced that the Philippines has recorded six COVID-19 cases of the South Africa variant of coronavirus on top of the 87 of UK variant cases.

“We should not panic. Ang nakikita natin, less than…mga 2% to 3% lang [ng COVID-19 cases natin ang new variant],” Salvana said during the Laging Handa briefing.

“Puwede maging factor [iyong variants], pero hindi pa rin ito ang main driver sa pag-increase ng cases. Iyong old virus, ganun rin naman nakakapanghawa,” Salvana added.

Given the situation, Salvana said it is important for the public to strictly observe minimum public health standards such as social distancing, frequent washing of hands and wearing of face mask and face shield as the COVID-19 vaccination program gets underway.

“It could be a factor…iyong pagpasok ng variant, pero palagay ko ang main driver pa rin talaga nito ay iyong ano, iyong the fact na nakahawa talaga kahit iyong old virus at hopefully hindi naman dahil medyo nagri-relax tayo ng kaunti, kinakailangan pa rin po natin to stick to what we know to prevent these kinds of surges,” Salvana pointed out.

“Kasi all these measures sa ating minimum health standards, whether new variant iyan o hindi, gagana naman po iyan as long as we comply with them,” he added.

The Philippine's COVID-19 vaccination program started last March 1, after the arrival last February 28 afternoon of the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine donated by the Chinese government.

Sinovac has been recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to clinically healthy individuals aged 18 to 59 years old since its efficacy rate reached 65% to 91% in this age group.

The FDA, however, initially did not recommend Sinovac for health workers because of its low efficacy rate at 50%. The Health Department subsequently approved Sinovac vaccines for the health workers.

As of Tuesday, the Philippines recorded 580,442 COVID-19 cases. Of this number, 534,463 recovered while 12,369 died.

Meanwhile, the number of active COVID-19 cases is at 33,610.  —LBG/RSJ, GMA News