endIndex: Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 17) — The Philippines must continue to tighten its borders and consider tapping more laboratories that could conduct genome sequencing to control the transmission of the new variants of COVID-19, an infectious disease expert said Monday. Dr. Rontgene Solante, head of San Lazaro Hospital-Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine department, told CNN Philippines' The Source on Monday that the government must act as if most COVID-19 cases in the country are already variant-driven, after listing at least 12 cases of the "double-mutant" variant first detected in India. "I'm not surprised that anybody coming from other countries will be bringing in this variant, whether it’s India or any other variants of concern. That’s the reason why border control is really important at this point in time," Solante said.