New COVID-19 variant seems to be local in France, says DOH

FILE PHOTO: People queue for being tested for COVID-19 outside a municipal building on January 9, 2021, in Bagneux, a southern suburb of Paris, where a risk cluster of the mutant coronavirus variant has been detected. (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP File)

MANILA, Philippines — The identified SARS-CoV-2 variant in France that reportedly appears to evade standard polymerase chain reaction testing seems to be local in the European country, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday.

DOH Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said the agency has yet to receive information on the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test kits that France is using, and other information needed to check if the Philippines will have to recalibrate its testing protocol.

“The identified variants seem to be local in France with only eight cases,” Vergeire said in a statement.

She also said there is “not much info yet as to the PCR kit used in France or the location of target gene(s).”

“Locally, many kits are being used for RT-PCR testing and these different kits target multiple genes so even if one region is mutated, the other region can be detected. Since there are many different kinds of kits being used locally with different target genes, they should be able to pick up the virus,” Vergeire explained.

“Nevertheless, we are working with PGC (Philippine Genome Center) to also map sites of mutations and we will be able to see if the regions with mutations will affect kits being used,” she added.

Initial reports state that the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes respiratory illness COVID-19, has been identified in Brittany in western France.

However, France’s health ministry said early analysis did not suggest that the variant was more contagious or deadly.

Reports also state that several of the patients had negative PCR tests but got positive results from blood samples and tissue in the respiratory system.

Investigations will be conducted to determine how the variant reacts to vaccination and antibodies.

In the Philippines, DOH has so far reported 223 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first reported in the United Kingdom, 152 cases of the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa, one case of P.1 variant found in Brazil, and 104 cases of P.3 variant found in the Philippines.

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