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| People wearing face masks and shields to protect themselves against the COVID-19 coronavirus wait for their transport on a street in Manila on September 7, 2021. (Photo by=Ted Aljibe/ AFP) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA: The Department of Health on Wednesday reported 339 more cases of the hyper contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, bringing total infections to 3,366, PhilStar reported. DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing that 45.3% of the 748 newly-sequenced samples were found to have the Delta variant. The samples included those taken from April to June.
The Delta variant, which was first found in India, is the most common lineage among sequenced samples in the country. Health authorities also detected 186 additional cases of the Beta variant, 98 cases of the Alpha variant, nine cases of the P.3 variant, and one case of the Gamma variant. The figures push the total number of Beta variant cases to 2,920, Alpha cases to 2,559, Gamma variant cases to three, and P.3 variant cases to 461.
The Philippines has so far reported 2.5 million COVID-19 cases, including 37,686 deaths, since the start of the pandemic.
