endIndex: Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 10) — Metro Manila could see up to nine times more COVID-19 cases if the variant first found in United Kingdom becomes a dominant variant in the country, an epidemiologist warned on Wednesday. "If the UK variant becomes the dominant strain, meaning it accounts for more than 50 percent of cases, we can have nine times more cases after a month. So we have to take precautions to avoid this," Dr. John Wong said in a media briefing. Wong, who is a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force Technical Working Group on data analytics, said the UK variant also called B.1.1.7 is more likely part of the ongoing surge of cases in Metro Manila, add to that the non-compliance of some Filipinos to the minimum public health standards. He said the UK variant is more transmissible while the South Africa variant affects the efficacy of vaccines