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Friday, March 29, 2024

Gov’t confirms local presence of more infectious virus strain

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Medical experts confirmed Tuesday the presence of an even more infectious variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, after it was seen in a small sample of positive cases in Quezon City.

The G614 variant has been reported in many other countries and it may have completely replaced the original D614 virus in most of Europe and the Americas. The mutation makes it easier for the virus to enter its target cell, and may be associated with higher viral loads in infected persons. This likely translates to a higher level of infectivity.

The Philippine Genome Center (PGC) and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) both confirmed the presence of G614 on Tuesday, but said all the samples were taken from Quezon City and may not reflect what is going on in the rest of the country.

Dr. Rontgene Solante, head of adult infectious diseases at San Lazaro Hospital, said while the G614 variant is easier to transmit, it was unknown if it will cause more severe infection or more deaths.

Monitoring the virus' mutations is important as these can "change up the targets" of vaccines being developed, he said.

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"For now since the mutation is occurring in the area of virus where it attaches itself, I don’t think it will cause significant alteration in terms of this virus escaping the production of antibodies produced by vaccine because that’s only a minor mutation," he told the ANC news channel.

Solante also said the Russian COVID-19 vaccine would have to undergo a phase 3 clinical trial in the Philippines to evaluate its efficacy and safety.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health said it is studying the case of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año who tested positive again for COVID-19, after he had recovered from an infection in March.

Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told ABS-CBN Teleradyo that antibodies developed in persons who had recovered from COVID-19 do not last, making them still susceptible again to the disease.

On Monday, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Año has a mild case of COVID-19 and remained under isolation.

Año, co-chairperson of the National Task Force against COVID-19, was the first member of President Rodrigo Duterte's Cabinet to be infected with the virus after contracting it in late March.

Año recovered from the disease, based on two negative test results, on April 8 and 13.

Vergeire said DOH experts are studying the case and have given several possibilities on why the official contracted the virus again.

“It's possible that his first diagnosis was a false positive. Second, there could have been contamination in the laboratory that's why the false positive happened, and third, this may just be remnants of the virus,” she said in Filipino.

Vergeire said the RT-PCR machine isso sensitive that it can detect even fragments of the virus.

“That's why we see in other people that they remain positive for a long time even while they are already non-infectious,” she said.

On Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte said he seek credit from Russia and China so that the government can afford to buy their vaccines.

“We will buy it. But if it’s quite expensive then I will ask the — my friend President [Vladimir] Putin and President Xi Jinping to give us a credit, like a loan, a credit line but we will pay not in one payment but by installments. We will pay. It’s not free” Duterte said Monday night.

The President also expressed gratitude to Russian and Chinese leaders for offering to provide vaccines to Filipinos.

“I would like to thank Russia, President Putin, and China, President Xi Jinping, for offering to provide us with the vaccine as soon as it is possible for distribution to the public,” Duterte said in a televised address.

“I cannot overemphasize my debt of gratitude. But remember that this is not for free, for after all, they did not develop the vaccine without great expense and also the human effort involved.”

The Philippines will participate in Russia’s Phase 3 clinical trials for its Sputnik-V vaccine from October 2020 to March 2021. The trials, to be simultaneously done in Manila and Moscow, will be funded by the Russian government.

Similar efforts are being done in China, the US and the UK as countries rush to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. Those countries were reported to be in the final stages of vaccine development.

The country has 164,474 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Monday afternoon, the DOH reported. The total number of recoveries is at 112,759, while there were 2,681 deaths, it said.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the 20 million “poorest of the poor” would be given priority when the vaccine becomes available.

In press briefing, Roque said the government will buy 40 million vaccine doses either from Russia, China or from any country.

He said the Department of Finance will allocate $400 million or roughly P20 billion to buy the vaccine with the help of the Philippine International Trading Corp., Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

He said the Department of Health will need to vaccinate for free a minimum of 20 million people.

Also on Tuesday, Senator Francis Tolentino on Tuesday challenged Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to have himself inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine developed in Wuhan, China.

“It would be better, Secretary, you should be the first to be vaccinated,” Tolentino told Duque at a Senate hearing Tuesday.

Duque said, however, that the vaccines would go through a process at the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that they are safe and effective.

Tolentino grilled Duque on the selection process of vaccines and other medicines that are being tested in the Philippines against COVID-19, raising the possibility that another Senate investigation would be launched next year to discuss the chosen vaccine.

Tolentino also confronted Duque regarding the expenses that the government may incur during the testing process of these vaccines, disclosing that P18 million from public funds will be used for Avigan testing in Metro Manila.

“Here in your guidelines, the applicant for vaccine will give and pay P30,000 for the FDA permit as the government will spend P18 million,” Tolentino said.

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