endIndex: Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 11) – Experts may take into account the presence of the India COVID-19 variant when they make their recommendation for succeeding quarantine levels. "We are strengthening or tightening our restrictions right now because we would like to prevent further spread of these kinds of variants," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media briefing on Tuesday. "If in a specific place we can see there is increasing number of cases and there is this specific variant of concern, then that's part of the factors that we will be considering," she added, referring to the B.1617 variant from India.