The Department of Health (DOH) said on Friday it is now checking if three new COVID-19 variants, including the United Kingdom variant, have entered the Philippines.“Right now we are monitoring three variants. This is the UK type variant, the South Africa variant and the variant identified in Malaysia,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said, speaking in Filipino during a virtual briefingEarlier reports said that a new variant was found in Sabah, a territory claimed by both Malaysia and the Philippines.This resulted in a strict lockdown for nearby Sulu province.Vergeire said that the more than 300 samples that underwent gene sequencing for the UK variant “were just initial.”