SunStar Image from Pixabay January 13, 2021 THE Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Genome Center confirmed Wednesday night, January 13, 2021, that the B.1.1.7 Sars-CoV-2 variant has been detected in the Philippines. In a press statement, the DOH said samples from a Filipino who arrived from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on January 7, 2021 yielded positive genome sequencing results. The patient, the DOH added, is a male resident of Quezon City who departed for Dubai on December 27, 2020 for business purposes and arrived in the Philippines last January 7, 2021 via Emirates Flight EK 332. The health department assured that immediate contact tracing has been done in close coordination with the Quezon City Government.