ILOILO CITY – The Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) subnational laboratory (SNL) based in this city’s Mandurriao district will soon be equipped to screen swab samples from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) positive patients for any possible variant.
Dr. Stephanie Abello, the chief pathologist of the hospital, said they have received an advisory from the central office of the Department of Health (DOH) about sending a test kit capable of screening samples whether these have variants.
However, it is incapable to detect any specific variant, but samples found to have a “sure variant” will be sent to the Philippine Genome Center (PGC), Abello said in a virtual presser on Monday.
There is a need to know the variant because it will have an impact on the treatment, vaccination, and testing, she said in a follow-up interview on Tuesday.
The SNL has already sent 346 samples with variants to the PGC since last February.
Abello added they follow guidelines in choosing samples such as those taken from an active symptomatic case.
From returning overseas Filipinos as priorities, the SNL already included local cases with mild, moderate, and severe Covid-19 symptoms due to the detection of the Delta variant.
In choosing samples from local cases, the SNL is looking at areas with clustering of cases or more than 20 Covid-19 infections, those with reinfection, and those with no travel history or contacts.
She said the two Delta variants detected from the 15 samples were sent on July 2 and another three out of the 35 samples were sent on July 16.
“All in all, of the 346 samples that were sent, five were detected as Delta variant,” Abello added.
“As for WVMC, we have no plan for genome sequencing because we leave it to the Philippine Genome Center in UP Visayas. They have a ready setup, whereas our ready setup is for ordinary PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machine,” she added.
With the detection of the Delta variant, the DOH in Western Visayas has been calling on the public to always observe minimum public health standards and get vaccinated.
Local government units are advised to strengthen border control, monitor their arrivals, implement localized or granular lockdowns, increase health care capacity for surge, enhance bio-surveillance and strengthen the implementation of the prevent-detect-isolate-treat-reintegrate (PDITR) strategy. (PNA)
Source: Philippines News Agency
