Pandemic now more dangerous

‘New Covid-19 variants threatening Philippines’ 

PRESIDENT DUTERTE has warned the public on the rising cases of Covid-19, saying the pandemic is getting to be more dangerous due to the continued mutations of the deadly respiratory virus.

He said surges in the number of Covid-19 cases were noted all around the world.

“The pandemic is getting hotter and it’s getting to be dangerous also because maraming variants naglabas ngayon: India, UK, Africa. And kapag nag-mutate ito, nag-iba ang anyo, we will have a problem now with discovering new vaccines. And we do not have a guarantee that the vaccines will be forthcoming on time na walang maraming mamamatay,” Duterte said.

And if the new variants are more or a serious mutant, Duterte said the government will just have to prepare for the worst. “We continue to prepare and we calibrate our preparedness in accordance with each propagation. Kung medyo palapit nang palapit na at marami nang tinatamaan, then we will go full blast in making everything operational,” he said.

Duterte also cited Secretary Carlito Galvez, who is in-charge of the vaccine procurement, saying “yun preparations ninyo tama ‘yon maski sobra-sobra because there is no way of knowing whether or not a new variant of the Covid-19 will come up. So okay ‘yong ating preparasyon.”

“I would be happy if you continue to build the infrastructure of our Covid-19 fight system because for as long as the Covid-19 is here and it will take a lot of time before it finally disappear, if at all, and with the advent of a new variants, it is good to prepare for a more serious attack,” he added.

Duterte cited the surge in Covid-19 cases in Taiwan. “In many countries, in Taiwan, nag-lockdown na sila. They were the first to graduate from the Covid-19. Akala nila wala na, wala ng (gumagamit ng face) mask. But it only would take one contaminated human being na makapasok doon to altogether again propagate the transmission. So iyan ang ating bantayan.”

“And I’m sure that with our experience and ang hindrance is really how much we can spare but we --- wala itong limit pagka tao na eh. I said, baka magkatotoo sabi ko ipagbili ko talaga ‘yong mga propiedad ng gobyerno kasi pawala nang pawala na ‘yong pera. We have spent maybe mag-abot lahat- lahat diyan at the --- on the final counting, mga almost a trillion, and there’s no, I said, an end in sight na matapos ito or the new variants will take over. We must prepare and wala naman akong problema. I know that Secretary Galvez is there, on hand siya, and (Health) Secretary (Francisco) Duque also on the other matters sa health issues, siya na ang bahala,” he added.

Among the early Covid-19 variants are those from the United Kingdom or U.K. and South Africa, but according to the medical website Mayo Clinic, viruses constantly change through mutation.

In March, the Department of Health said it has confirmed the presence of U.K. variant in Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur from 2 overseas Filipino workers who arrived home from Kuwait and Abu Dhabi in February.

The spike in Covid-19 cases in Zamboanga City may have been caused by new variants that are now plaguing the National Capital Region and other provinces in the country.

From a little over 3o active Covid-19 cases in March, Zamboanga City now has more than 2,000 new cases and the number continues to climb despite strict quarantine measures and health protocols imposed by the local Covid-19 task force headed by Mayor Beng Climaco.

The other Covid-19 strains are the following:

A variant identified in the U.K. (B.1.1.7). This Covid-19 variant appears to spread more easily and might have an increased risk of death.

A variant identified in South Africa (B.1.351). This variant appears to spread more easily. It also has a moderate impact on the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody medications and moderately reduces the effectiveness of antibodies generated by a previous Covid-19 infection or Covid-19 vaccine.

A variant identified in Japan/Brazil (P.1). This variant has a moderate impact on the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody medications. It also reduces the effectiveness of antibodies generated by a previous Covid-19 infection or a Covid-19 vaccine.

A variant identified in the U.S. (California) (B.1.427). This variant appears to spread more easily. It also has a significant impact on the effectiveness of some treatments and moderately reduces the effectiveness of antibodies generated by a previous Covid-19 infection or Covid-19 vaccine.

A variant identified in the U.S. (California) (B.1.429). This variant appears to spread more easily. It also has a significant impact on the effectiveness of some treatments and moderately reduces the effectiveness of antibodies generated by a previous Covid-19 infection or Covid-19 vaccine.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also monitoring two variants identified in New York — B.1.526 and B.1.525 — and another variant identified in Brazil — P.2.

But a new Covid-19 variant, officially designated as Lineage P.3, was also detected in the Philippines in March this year as reported by the Philippine Genome Center. (Mindanao Examiner) 

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