DOH: Safety protocol lapses, not variants, driving spike in cases

The Department of Health (DOH) attributes the recent spike in COVID-19 cases to lapses in compliance with safety protocols rather than community transmission of the South Africa or UK variants.

As of Friday, the Philippines has detected 52 new cases of the South Africa variant and 31 additional cases of the UK variant, bringing the total number of South Africa variant cases to 58 and UK variant cases to 118.

DOH Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stated there is no evidence yet of community transmission of these variants in the Philippines and emphasized that non-compliance with health protocols remains the primary cause for increasing case numbers.