New Philippines Covid variant found in England – as it happened
Public Health England said variant contains number of notable mutations, including the E484K spike protein found in Manaus mutation. This blog is now closed. Follow our new one below
12.13am GMT
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11.33pm GMT
At Port Moresby General Hospital, about 20% of women presenting in labour have symptoms of Covid-19. Of these, about one-third (four to five women a day) test positive.
We get the test results back about two to three hours after we take the swabs, so often by the time the woman is delivering her baby it is too late to transfer her to the Covid isolation ward for the birth and staff have attended to her and been exposed to the virus, without being able to don the appropriate level of PPE and practice other precautionary measures to protect themselves.
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