The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) has sounded the alarm for two “highly transmissible” variants of Covid-19 in Negros Oriental.
IPHO chief Dr. Liland Estacion reported Thursday that the Philippine Genome Center detected two variants of concern: the P3 variant first detected in March in various areas in the country and the Alpha or the so-called UK variant.
The P3 or the “Theta” variant was detected from a covid positive patient from Dumaguete City, Estacion said.
The Genome Center said P3 results from at least two mutations and is more transmissible than the common covid strain. Transmission, she said, would still depend on a person’s immune system.
Compared to the P3, Estacion said the Alpha variant detected in Tanjay City is “believed to be 40 to 80 percent transmissible” as supposed to the P3 and other variants.
The Department of Health has directed an investigation on the new variants detected here, intensive contact tracing, and testing up to the third degree.
Though premature, Estacion said the spike of covid infection in Dumaguete and Tanjay might be due to the new variants. She said they would confirm this after the Health Offices concerned had verified and traced contacts of those patients with P3 and Alpha variants, respectively. The P3 patient has already recovered.
Estacion said they are a bit “alarmed” with detecting the new variants, but this was not the first time it happened. Early this year, at least five Returning Overseas Filipinos and Overseas Filipino Workers bound to Negros Oriental tested positive for the P3 variant in Manila. However, the recent detection of the P3 and Alpha variants happened in the province.
Medical Center and Holy Child Hospital pulmonologist Dr. Caesar Antonio Ligo’s theory of the possible presence of a new variant in the province was confirmed by the Genome Center.
The CHRONICLE reported that based on Ligo’s observation and that of his colleagues, the recent spike of severe cases of covid in the city could only be because of a new variant. (By Ryan Sorote)