Ma. Angelica Tujan is a Science Research Specialist under the Research and Development Section of the Molecular Biology Laboratory, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), Philippines. Trained in next generation sequencing (NGS) technology, she took part in projects that deal with infectious diseases such as MERS-CoV and Tuberculosis. Currently, she is involved in research studies on genomics and transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2.

The Philippines recorded more than 200,000 COVID-19 cases with a mortality rate of ~1.6%, from January-August 2020. Using Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION and ARTIC Network sequencing and bioinformatics protocols, a total of seventeen out of twenty-one (17/21) viral genome sequences from January, March, and June met sufficient quality to be released through the GISAID Initiative. These sequences were assigned by PANGOLIN with high confidence to five (5) different lineages: A, B, B.1, B.1.1, and B.6. By combining these genomic data with epidemiological information from COVID-19 infected patients, tracking of locally acquired infections and timely recognition of transmissions can be easily achieved.