Coronavirus Vaccines
Philippines finds cases of South African strain
This may blunt impact of country's inoculation drive that began on Monday
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Military health workers giving Covid-19 shots yesterday to members of the armed forces in Taguig city, south of Manila. The Philippines began rolling out its Covid-19 immunisation programme on Monday, after it received about 600,000 doses of the vaccine produced by China's Sinovac.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Raul Dancel Philippines Correspondent In Manila, Raul Dancel
Health officials in the Philippines said yesterday that they have detected the South African variant of the coronavirus in the country, a discovery that could blunt the impact of the nation's still-nascent inoculation drive.
More cases of the more transmissible British variant have also been found, including imported infections brought in from Singapore.
In a statement, the Health Ministry reported that it had detected six cases of the B1351 variant that was first discovered in South Africa last December.
Three of the people who tested positive for this altered version of the virus were in Pasay, a city of about 500,000 in Metro Manila that had on Feb 19 placed some 50 districts on a two-week lockdown after it saw Covid-19 infections surge by nearly three times.
Last Saturday, President Rodrigo Duterte extended partial coronavirus curbs in the capital until the end of this month, after a report of 2,651 new infections, the highest daily increase in more than four months.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire declined to say if the new variant was responsible for the surge.
"The probability is always there... but we still need to do a thorough analysis," she told reporters yesterday.
Of the three other people detected with the South African variant, two are Filipinos who had arrived in Manila from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The authorities have yet to establish if the third case is a local or imported infection.
"While there is no evidence that this variant causes more severe disease, the pattern of mutations within this variant suggests higher transmissibility and may have an impact on vaccine efficacy," the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Experts believe the South African version of the virus may spread more quickly than its cousins, and perhaps be harder to quash with current vaccines.
It carries genetic changes that could make it harder for antibodies produced by the immune system to recognise the coronavirus, which means they may be less effective at stopping the variant.
The Philippines began rolling out its biggest and most crucial immunisation programme on Monday, after it received about 600,000 doses of a vaccine produced by China's Sinovac.
Sinovac's Brazilian partner has said the vaccine is effective against both the South African and British variants.
Researchers in China previously reported that Sinovac's vaccine triggers immunity against the South African variant, though its efficacy is "somewhat weaker".
There have already been concerns in the Philippines, even among health professionals, over Sinovac's vaccine, as its efficacy rate swings broadly from 50 per cent to 90 per cent, and the data behind it has not been peer reviewed.
The government's top ministers and health officials have had themselves inoculated to allay these fears.
"Fifty per cent efficacy is still better than nothing... If I can be assured 100 per cent that I won't be hospitalised or end up in ICU (intensive care unit) as I go to work is so much already... So we will continue to dole out vaccines," Dr Vergeire told reporters.
The Health Ministry also reported yesterday that it had detected 30 new cases of the B117 variant, first detected in Britain last September, bringing the total number of B117 infections in the Philippines to 87.
Twenty were imported cases, brought in by Filipinos who flew in from Singapore, the United States and the Middle East.
Experts have warned that unless checked, infections in Metro Manila could surge back to 2,500 a day, the same as the figures last August, when the country's public health system was overwhelmed by a surge in Covid-19 patients.
Still, the government is looking at further easing restrictions to revive the stalled economy.
President Duterte, who had earlier rejected his own pandemic task force's calls to relax curbs, said he was reconsidering that decision now that vaccines are being rolled out.
