The Philippines' health ministry said on Sunday it has detected the first case of COVID-19's Lambda variant in the country and reminded the public to strictly observe minimum public health standards.
The World Health Organization classifies Lambda as a "variant of interest", which was first identified in Peru in December, as laboratory studies showed it has mutations that resist vaccine-induced antibodies.
Two-dose COVID-19 vaccine from China's Sinopharm was 50.4% effective in preventing infections in health workers in Peru when it was seeing a surge in cases fuelled by virus variants, and booster shots can be considered, a study found.
The study involving Sinopharm's BBIBP-CorV vaccine, which looked at data from February through June at a time when Peru was fighting a brutal second-wave of infections fuelled by the Lambda and Gamma variants of the coronavirus, was conducted on nearly 400,000 frontline health workers in live conditions.
Most of the health workers received two doses of the vaccine.
Peru has the highest pandemic death count per capita in the world, which scientists say was caused by the Lambda variant first identified late last year and made worse by a fragile healthcare system.
The Lambda variant recently grabbed headlines because of its spread in the United States and other Latin American nations, though several infectious disease experts said the spread of the variant may be receding.
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