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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.(File photo by=AFP / Ted Aljibe) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA: The Department of Health said Monday 426 more cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 were detected in the country from samples of patients collected in past months. Additional Delta cases accounted for 84.19% of the 506 total samples sent for whole-genome sequencing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said, PhilStar reported.
In a briefing, she reported these were collected from March, April, September, October, and November. DOH has said, too, that it is doing retrospective sampling to trace the origins of the Delta variant in the country. This development brought the Philippines’s total Delta variant cases to 7,038. It comprises 38.29% out of the 18,383 samples with detected lineages. Apart from the Delta, health authorities also reported 18 cases of the Beta, or the variant first detected in South Africa, as well as 10 of the Alpha or that originally identified in the United Kingdom.
Beta now accounts for 19.56% or 3,595 of total samples with lineages, while Alpha with 17.08% or 3,139 cases. Authorities declared local transmission of the Delta in end-July. Experts had attributed the surge in coronavirus cases in past months that has now eased to the variant. Vergeire said the entire country remains at low-risk status for COVID-19, with daily new cases falling to below 2,000 last week.
