Samples from these positive cases are currently being determined if they are adequate for sequencing. Among those who tested positive, 1 is still in isolation while the disposition of the 4 patients are being verified. All of these passengers were quarantined upon arrival and tested on the 6th or 7th day.Īmong these cases, 5 tested positive for COVID 19 through RT PCR while 137 of them tested negative. The Bureau of Quarantine recorded 149 passengers with travel history from India from April 1-30 129 of which are ROFs and 20 foreign nationals. Meanwhile, the DOH is closely monitoring all those with travel history to India prior to the imposition of the travel ban. Beginning May 7, the country will also ban passengers coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka or those who have been to said countries within 14 days before their travel to the Philippines.
ON TRAVELERS FROM COUNTRIES WITH B.1.617 VARIANTįollowing the reports of another variant possibly causing a surge in India, the government banned travelers from India last April 27. A thorough analysis of these data allows the government to implement more responsive strategies to mitigate the impact of the said variants. The DOH reiterates that the practical purpose of the genomic biosurveillance is to determine the presence of VOCs and VUIs to monitor their spread, and determine the correlation of the presence of these variants to observed case clusters and spikes, increased severity or fatality, and cases of re-infection. Hence, there is a disproportionately higher number of samples being sequenced from areas with reported clustering, increased severe and critical cases, and a bigger presence of returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs). DOH is also doing purposive sampling to ensure a higher likelihood of detecting the variant, which means that more samples are taken from areas, clusters, and groups of people that are likely to have these VOCs/VUIs. The DOH explains that more VOCs and VUIs are being detected in the country due to the increased genomic biosurveillance activities. However, the detection of these variants of concern (VOCs) and variants under investigation (VUIs) does not mean that these variants are now the dominant variants in the country. With the strengthened biosurveillance activities of the Department of Health (DOH), the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center, and the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health, a total of 1,075 B.1351 variant cases (first detected in South Africa), 948 B.1.1.7 variant cases (first detected in UK), 157 P.3 variant cases (first detected in the Philippines), and 2 P.1 variant cases (first detected in Brazil) have been detected as of May 3. Links to other Libraries and Resource Center.
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