The Department of Health (DoH) has stepped up tracing and testing efforts in Bontoc, Mountain Province, where it found at least three clusters of people infected with B117, the more potent variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) that was first detected in the United Kingdom.

The testing of more people that had close contact with the B117 case who arrived in Bontoc from the UK last December could add to the DoH’s total of 16 confirmed cases of the variant.