GenSan steps up surveillance vs. Covid-19 variants

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – The city government has stepped up its surveillance against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) mutant variants in the wake of the continuing surge of locally transmitted infections.

Dr. Carl Hill Florida, the City Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases spokesperson, said Friday they sent 54 more swab samples to the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) to check for the possible presence of the mutant variants.

The Department of Health (DOH) and UP-PGC confirmed five cases of the Covid-19 “variants of concern” here since last month but the patients have so far recovered.

Four of the patients came out positive in genome sequencing with the B.1.17 (United Kingdom or UK) and one with the B.1.617 (India) variant.

“We’re trying to determine whether the increasing cases are caused by the new variants,” Florida told reporters.

The samples were from admitted and isolated patients, especially those from communities with high incidence of the disease, he said.

He said one of the bases for bio-surveillance is the cycle threshold or CT value, which is a measure of how soon the virus is detected in a sample after Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing.

A returning government worker assigned in Calapan City initially yielded last month with the UK variant and infected two other persons.

On Wednesday night, the city government confirmed that two returning male seafarers have also contracted Covid-19 mutant variants, with one positive with the UK and the other with the Indian variant.

The City Health Office’s epidemiology and surveillance unit is currently tracing the close contacts of the patient infected with the Indian variant as he reportedly had cough upon arrival in the city last April 26.

Florida said the Indian variant is considered more contagious than the other known variants since it exhibits a “double mutation” of the virus.

He said it has a mutation similar to the California variant, which spreads rapidly, as well as of Brazil (P.1) and South Africa (B.1.351) variants.

“This means that individuals who survived Covid-19 could be infected again even if they are already vaccinated,” he said.

The city currently has the second highest number of active cases in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) with 313 based on the DOH-12’s tracker as of Thursday night.

The confirmed infections in the city since last year reached a total of 2,790, the highest in the region, with 98 related deaths and 2,379 recoveries. (PNA)