The Philippines has detected the presence of D614G, a Covid-19 mutation.

Found in Quezon City

D614G is believed to be 10 times more infectious than the original Covid-19 strain, which means that it will be easier to spread, especially by a "super spreader".

According to an Aug. 13 release by the Philippine Genome Centre, D614G was detected in a small sample of positive cases from Quezon City, northeast of Manila.

It added:

"In the context of vaccine design and diagnostic assays, it is important to track and study the mutations of the virus as it spreads around the world. Epidemiologists likewise study the random mutations occurring in circulating viruses to inform containment measures.

[...]

Although this information confirms the presence of G614 in the Philippines, we note that all the samples tested were from Quezon City and may not represent the mutational landscape for the whole country."

Also detected in Malaysia

D614G has also been detected in Malaysia after isolating and testing four cases from two existing clusters.

The mutation was first discovered by scientists in July and is likely to render any study on a vaccine to be ineffective against the mutation.

Although D614G is more infectious, it is not any deadlier.

Top image by Olga Kononenko via Unsplash.