(Philippine News Agency) MANILA – The Philippines has detected its first case of P.1 variant, a potentially more transmissible coronavirus that emerged in Brazil, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Saturday.
The DOH said a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from Western Visayas was found positive for the variant after the sequencing of 752 samples by the Philippine Genome Center.
“The one case found with the P.1 variant is a ROF from Brazil. Additional information about the case is currently being investigated,” it said in a statement.
The P.1 variant was first detected in Japan by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) among four travelers from Brazil.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is evidence to suggest that transmissibility and the ability of antibodies generated through a previous infection are affected by some mutations of P.1… Read More
