EDITORIAL – Mutation

The studies remain inconclusive, according to the World Health Organization. The attention of the WHO and the scientific community has been drawn by the discovery of a mutation of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus-2 in a small sample of COVID-19 cases in Quezon City last month. SARS-CoV-2 is the pathogen that causes coronavirus disease 2019.

Scientists have pointed out that it’s not unusual for viruses to mutate. The small sample also does not represent the situation in the entire country. What bears watching, however, is the potential of the mutant to be more virulent than the original. There are fears that this could be the case in the SARS-CoV-2 mutation detected in Quezon City.

Seeing COVID-19 becoming even more infectious and debilitating or lethal is the last thing the country needs. While studies have not yet established the virulence of the mutated SARS-CoV-2, its discovery adds urgency to the effort to ramp up the country’s COVID testing and contact tracing capabilities.

The testing suffers not only from the limited number of kits and the high cost of the more reliable swab test, but also the long wait for the results. Some people who undergo the swab test on suspicion that they might be infected still continue with their routines, mingling with people in the workplace, in supermarkets and public transportation. By the time the results are known in three to five days, how many more people would have been infected?

It’s not enough to undergo the so-called gold standard in SARS-CoV-2 detection, the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test. The result of the rRT-PCR test must be known as quickly as possible, to prevent further virus transmission. This becomes more critical if the SARS-CoV-2 proves to be more virulent.

Contact tracing, while significantly improved since the start of the pandemic, still needs a major boost. The fears over the mutant SARS-CoV-2 variant might prove to be unfounded, but in this pandemic, it’s always better to prepare for the worst.