Coronavirus strain in the Philippines didn't originate from China, expert says

The Covid-19 Pandemic News - Philippines

Manila - The Philippines ranks 3rd as far as the Covid-19 cases in the South East Asia.  At first, the WHO commended the Philippine government for successfully containing the outbreak on March but all of the sudden, the cases have blown out of proportion in April when the cases spiked.  The opposition, the procommunists and the yellow community blamed President Duterte for not immediately imposing travel ban from China.   Many think that the Covid-19 virus was acquired from Chinese who traveled to the Philippines.  But the latest finding contradict this perception and says otherwise.

   The strain of Covid-19 may originated from India and not from Wuhan, China, a health expert said on Wednesday ( May 20 ).  According to Edsel Salvaña, a member of Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease ( IAFT-EID ), using publicly shared genome, the most genetically related virus found in the Philippines came from a South Asian nation.  India is the most ravaged country in the South Asia and has the highest confirmed cases of Covid-19.

     " It is not certain if the Coronavirus really came from an Indian, or it may have also been acquired by traveling to India.  But the most related virus like a mother virus that we have here in the Philippines actually originated from India." Salvaña told the media.

     The Coronavirus virus strain from India could have caused the outbreak in the Philippines that started in March, he added.  Dr. Salvaña said that it could be a Filipino or non Filipino who had  travel to India then came to the Philippines and started spreading the disease.

     Dr. Salvaña also stressed that the virus' family tree appeared in China. It traveled to Australia before stopping in India. " The one who visited india, came from Australia but before coming to Australia, he traveled to China, so he traveled to those places before coming here to the Philippines," Dr. Salvaña said.

     Health experts say that genetic sequencing can help researchers and pathologists understand the mutation  of the virus strain,  it's orogin and discovery of cure.

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Source: ABS-CBN News