22 of 25 new COVID-19 variant cases already recovered — DOH
MANILA, Philippines — Twenty-two of the 25 people who were found to have the more contagious coronavirus variant have already recovered from COVID-19, the Department of Health said Monday.
The DOH reported Friday the detection of eight more cases of B.1.1.7—the variant first detected in the United Kingdom—in the country, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 25.
In a briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said one has died, while two cases remain active.
The country’s first recorded fatality due to the more infectious COVID-19 variant was an 84-year-old man from La Trinidad, Benguet who had no known history of travel nor contact with any B.1.1.7. variant case. He was reported to have died last January 24.
“Our regional office said this person never went out, seldom. He was said to have stayed inside his house and did not have any contact. So we are looking at the source of infection and other circumstances,” Vergeire said.
Further investigation still needed
Vergeire said there are two B.1.1.7. variant cases whose sources of infection are not yet determined. But she stressed that further investigation is still needed before the agency can declare community transmission.
“Further investigation is required before we can confirm this because when you talk about community transmission, it means a variant is already widespread in an area. This means the source of infection could no longer be determined and the infection has spread. We have to be very careful when we declare this,” she said in Filipino.
According to the World Health Organization, community transmission is “evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases, or by increasing positive tests through sentinel samples.”
The DOH earlier confirmed the local transmission of the new COVID-19 variant in Bontoc, Mountain Province. Local transmission indicates locations where the source of infection is within the reporting location.
To date, the Philippines has more than 538,000 COVID-19 cases, with 11,231 deaths.
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