By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews
The Philippines Department of Health (DOH) reported eight additional UK COVID-19 variant cases, or B.1.1.7 Friday, bringing the total seen in the country to 25.
Officials report no other variant of concern has been detected.
The newly reported cases are from Bontoc, Mountain Province; La Trinidad, Benguet; Liloan, Cebu and two of the detected cases were returning overseas Filipino (ROF).
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The DOH, in coordination with concerned local government units, vowed to intensify contact tracing and conduct immediate case investigation to identify the sources of infection for the cases with no known link to previously reported UK variant patients.
“Biosurveillance activities shall likewise be sustained and the succeeding whole genome sequencing activities are expected to determine the extent of transmission in areas where B.1.1.7 variant cases have been detected and to provide better representation from all regions,” it said.
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