RITM Says Declaring Local Transmissions Over UK Variant Cluster In PH Is Premature
UK COVID CLUSTER VARIANT IN PH – According to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) saying there are local transmissions of the new UK coronavirus variant in the Philippines in premature.
Recently, several new cases of the UK coronavirus strain was detected in a town in the Mountain Province. Furthermore, regional health officials say that the cases were closely related to each other. As such, a lockdown was imposed on at least two villages.
However, even with the detection of the cluster, Dr. Celia Carlos, director of the RITM said it’s still premature to call this a “community transmission”. According to an article from GMA, she said:
Considering that investigation is ongoing, it may be premature for us now to determine whether there is ongoing community transmission. We need to wait for the results of investigation
12 of the additional cases were reported in Bontoc, two of the patients returned from Lebanon and two were from La Trinidad Benguet, and Calamba, Laguna. But, Carlos explained that the recent cases still don’t fit the criteria for “community transmissions”.
As per the report, she said that for local transmissions, the following three conditions should be met:
- large numbers of cases that are not linkable through transmission chains
- large numbers of cases from sentinel sites if there is existing surveillance.
- multiple unrelated clusters in several areas of the country
Currently, the reported cluster was found close together. Furthermore, all patients have now been placed under isolation.
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