The COVID-19 Lambda variant case detected in Western Visayas had been tagged as recovered before the genome sequencing result was released.
This is the first known case of the Lambda (C.37) variant in the Philippines. It involves a 35-year-old woman from Valladolid town in Negros Occidental.
The woman and her newborn baby will undergo re-swabbing, according to the Department of Health (DOH-6).
The woman was found to have contracted COVID-19 on July 2. She was immediately transferred to the nearest quarantine facility while being asymptomatic.
On July 16, the woman was re-swabbed and her result turned out negative for the viral disease.
However, on July 22, as an admission protocol for women about to give birth at Corazon Montelibano Memorial Regional District Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod City, the patient was swabbed again and tested positive for COVID-19
Contact tracing was immediately conducted. All close contacts including the newborn baby yielded negative RT-PCR results.
The woman and her baby were discharged from the hospital and were transferred to a quarantine facility. They were released on Aug. 6.
The DOH-6 said the woman’s specimen was sent to the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGH) for genome sequencing on Aug. 2.
On August 15, the DOH-6 received endorsement from the Epidemiology Bureau indicating that the woman tested positive for the Lambda variant.
The Lambda variant, which was first identified in Peru in August 2020, has been classified as a variant of interest (VOI) by the World Health Organization. VOI is one step below the variants of concern (VOC) list.
This VOI, according to the DOH, has the potential to affect the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 and is currently being monitored for its possible clinical significance.IMT
