FLiRT Covid-19 variant not a threat — DoH

The Department of Health (DoH) on Tuesday allayed public fears that another Covid-19 variant could possibly cause another surge in cases in the country.

This after the World Health Organization (WHO) on 17 May listed new variants under monitoring (VUM): JN.1.18, KP.2 and KP.3. All of these are descendants of JN.1.

Variants KP.2 and KP.3 are the proper names of what is informally known as “FLiRT” variants.

FLiRT is a nickname coined by some researchers to describe amino acid changes in the Covid- 19 virus’ spike protein, specifically from phenylalanine (F) to leucine (L) at position 456, and from arginine (R) to threonine (T) at position 346.

WHO observed that “there are currently no reported laboratory or epidemiological reports indicating any association between variants of interest (VOI)/VUMs and increased disease severity.”

“There is no evidence now that the KP.2 and KP.3 variants are causing severe to critical Covid-19, both locally and internationally,” the DoH noted.

There is no scientific basis for travel restrictions to any country because of an increase in Covid-19 cases,” it added.

The DoH also stressed that further assessment is needed to determine transmissibility and capacity to evade immune response.

All regions low risk for Covid-19

The DoH likewise stressed that all regions in the country remain at low-risk for Covid-19 and stressed that there is no scientific basis for travel restrictions to any country because of an increase in Covid-19 cases.

As of 12 May, only 11 percent or 119/1,117 of dedicated Covid-19 ICU beds were occupied.

Meanwhile, only 13 percent or 1,238/9,571 of dedicated Covid-19 non-ICU beds were occupied.

Severe and critical Covid-19 cases admitted in various hospitals total to only 116, based on hospital reports in the DoH Data Collect application.

From 7 to 13 May, 877 new Covid-19 cases were reported, with an average of 125 cases reported per day.

While there is an observed increase recently, it is small and lower than previously observed increases.