The Department of Health (DOH) needs some P362 million to fund genome sequencing efforts for the whole year, which would help identify new variants against COVID-19.
"That's the required budget for the sustenance of a one-year processing of genome sequencing," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press briefing Monday.
The proposed budget will include a year's worth of supply of reagents or chemicals used in tests, testing kits and other logistical requirements.
Vergeire said the Department of Budget and Management has committed to finding the funds required for the Philippine Genome Center, University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
The agency's budget for this year is P210.2 billion, which is 19.6 percent higher than its 2020 budget.
Funds for additional genome sequencing amid the presence of a highly transmissible variant that first emerged in the United Kingdom, was not included in the 2021 budget, Vergeire said.
Vergeire said the agency was hindered by a global shortage of reagents, which they usually buy from Singapore and the US.
Due to lack of reagents, health institutions last week were only able to conduct genome sequencing of 48 samples, far from its usual 750 samples per week, Vergeire said.
She said they were speeding up the release of these reagents from Customs and were hoping to start sequencing 750 samples again.
"Instead of just procuring two months’ worth of supply or three 3 months’ worth of supply, we are now going to procure [enough] for about six months,” she said.
Vergeire said that 83 people in Bontoc, Mountain Province, and six in La Trinidad, Benguet, all close contacts of cases with the UK variant of the coronavirus, have tested positive for COVID-19.
Vergeire said eight samples from Bontoc and two from La Trinidad will undergo sequencing to see if it is the more transmissible UK variant of the virus.
As of Sunday, a total of 447people have been identified as first to third-generation contacts of the cases of UK variant in the region, Vergeire said.
Some 56 RT-PCR test results of some close contacts are still pending, she added.
Twelve cases of COVID-19 with the UK variant have been detected so far in Bontoc and also one in La Trinidad.
Earlier, the DOH confirmed a local transmission of new coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, the UK variant of the virus, in Bontoc.
A strict lockdown imposed on five villages in Bontoc was extended until Feb. 7, the local government said.
