Local scientists report new strain of COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — A new strain of coronavirus disease believed to be more infectious than SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, has been found in the country, a report by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) showed.

In a bulletin dated Aug. 13, the PGC said the original “D614” variant of the virus was detected in positive samples collected from the Philippine General Hospital in March or during the early stages of the pandemic in the country.

In a new study conducted in June, both D614 and G614 variants were detected.

“In the D614G variant of the virus, the ‘D’ amino acid aspartate at position 614 of the spike protein has mutated to the ‘G’ amino acid glycine. The G614 variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to have become the dominant strain of the virus in circulation around the world,” PGC said.

In contrast to the coronavirus collected in March, PGC had detected the G614 variant among nine randomly selected COVID-19 positive samples collected in Quezon City in July.

“Although this information confirms the presence of G614 in the Philippines, we note that all the samples tested were from Quezon City and may not represent the mutational landscape for the whole country,” the center said.

The bulletin showed that together with the observation that G614 is “now the dominant viral state, the mutation can increase the viral rate of transmission of COVID-19.”

But for the Department of Health (DOH), it is still premature to say that there is a mutation of SARS-CoV-2.

“We need a lot of evidence to say that the virus circulating now in the country has mutated,” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.

She said the PGC study was conducted on a small group in Quezon City and not “representative of the whole country.”