PH detects 1st case of Brazil variant. Inquirer Newsletter. March 14, 2021.

No images? Click here   POLLING AMID PANDEMIC   At 50 to 60 percent, the voter turnout was still considered “high” for Saturday’s electoral exercise that decides whether Palawan will be split into three provinces. Residents of Barangay Panacan Uno, for example, went out to cast their vote despite the rain and the raging pandemic. —ROMAR MIRANDA     News Asian Americans organize vs hate Members of the community take matters into their own hands—campaigning online, fundraising—to push back against the “un-American” wave of racist attacks targeting them. Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   World ‘Quad’ OKs a billion vaccine doses for Asia To counter China’s vaccine diplomacy, the US, Australia, India and Japan agreed to cooperate in providing Covid-19 vaccines to poor countries in the Indo- Pacific by the end of 2022. Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/World   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19. Subscribe     Subscribe   Banner Story PH detects 1st case of Brazil variant By Patricia Denise M. Chiu The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday said it had detected the first P.1 variant of the coronavirus, also known as the variant of concern (VOC) from Brazil. It was found in a Filipino worker, who is from Western Visayas, who had returned from Brazil, the DOH said. It said it was still looking for more information regarding his case. There are currently three VOCs globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). These are the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the United Kingdom (the UK variant), the B.1.351 variant initially detected in South Africa (the SA variant) and the P.1 variant. Highly transmissible All three VOCs are now in the Philippines. These variants have been associated with higher transmissibility and initial studies also show that the South African variant may be resistant to some vaccines. Scientists found that the virus with the P.1 variant has a spike protein that makes it bind quicker to human cells, making it more infectious. The DOH also confirmed that continued whole genome sequencing has led to the detection of 59 more cases of the UK variant and 32 cases of the SA variant. This brings the country’s total to 177 UK variant cases and 90 SA variant cases. The DOH also confirmed that it was directed to designate “P.3” to a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the severe respiratory disease, which was initially detected in the Philippines. This variant contains two mutations of concern, the DOH said. However, the health department stressed that it was not yet declaring P.3 a variant of concern. There are already 98 cases of the P.3 variant in the country, the DOH said. During Saturday’s Laging Handa public briefing, Dr. Anna Ong-Lim of the DOH technical advisory group said that the Philippine Genome Center reported that it had detected 85 cases with a unique set of mutations to the global reporting system Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages (Pangolin). The DOH asked Pangolin whether this was “unique to the Philippines.” “They’ve come back to us and told us that this is a new variant,” she said. The P.3 variant, which has also been detected by health authorities in Japan from a 60-year-old man who had arrived from the Philippines, contains two mutations of concern designated as N501Y and E484K. These two mutations are also present in the B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P.1 variants. The P.3 variant first detected in the Philippines could not be immediately be classified as a VOC, according to Dr. Alethea de Guzman, director of the DOH’s epidemiology bureau. ‘Unique set of mutations’ “It is a unique set of mutations that constitute one variant. The P.3 variant has the N501Y, the E484K and other mutations,” she said in a Viber message. De Guzman said the WHO earlier explained that a variant was only considered a VOC after an assessment that it had fulfilled a specific criteria. Specifically, the variant should show an increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; an increased virulence or change in clinical disease presentation; or a decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines or therapeutics. A variant can also be classified as a VOC by the WHO if it is assessed as one by its SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution Working Group. “P.3 is still being studied to find evidence if it will fulfill the criteria,” De Guzman said. The DOH said that “current available data [on P.3] are insufficient to conclude whether the variant will have significant public health implications.” The Philippines on Saturday recorded the most infectious day of 2021 when it  recorded 5,000 new cases of COVID-19 infections. This is the most in a single day in almost seven months, or since Aug. 26, 2020, when the DOH reported 5,277 new cases. The highest daily figure the country has recorded so far was 6,958 on Aug. 10, 2020. It was also around August last year when health-care workers called for a “timeout.” Latest case count On Thursday, Metro Manila mayors imposed a regionwide curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the next two weeks in an effort to contain infections in the capital. Saturday’s new infections pushed the country’s total case count to 626,622. According to the DOH, 281 patients have recovered, raising the number of survivors to 547,166. However, 72 have died, bringing the death toll to 12,766. The recoveries and deaths left 56,679 active cases. Of this number, 92.3 percent are mild cases, 4.3 percent asymptomatic, 1.4 percent critical, 14 percent severe and 0.66 moderate. The DOH said seven laboratories were unable to submit their data on time. Former Health Secretary Janette Garin, who represents Iloilo’s first district in the House of Representatives, said the presence of the Brazil variant was a “strong reminder to get our act together.” She suggested the use of the allocated second dose of available COVID-19 vaccines as the first dose for new recipients to protect more Filipinos against the emerging and more contagious variants of the coronavirus. “Each day of protection is a big step toward being ahead of the virus,” she said. —WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial Vaccinated—now what? The US Centers for Disease  Control and Prevention has emphasized that being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 does not mean ditching health protocols that have been in place since last year, such as mask-wearing, hand-washing, and social distancing. Precautions should still be taken especially in public places or when exposed to or interacting with unvaccinated people. Metro Manila mayors are right to insist that residents should continue to comply with the minimum health protocols even after getting inoculated, because the vaccine is not a replacement for such health safeguards. Dr. Carlos del Rio of Emory University in Atlanta is counseling patience and vigilance even with the arrival of vaccines: 'It's not like you'll need to wear a mask for the rest of your life. You need to wear your mask until we have the data, and we're trying to get the answers as fast as we can.' Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net   Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines.   Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Preferences  |  Unsubscribe