Philippines detects 128 more cases of Omicron subvariants
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has detected 128 cases of Omicron subvariants, latest data from the Department of Health showed.
Out of the samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center and the Southern Philippines Medical Center, 52 cases were BA.2.3.20, 28 were XBB, 13 were XBC, 10 were BA.5, and one was BA.2.75. Twenty-four cases were classified as other Omicron subvariants.
Ninety-nine of the additional cases of Omicron subvariants were locals.
Meanwhile, one additional case was classified as Delta.
These are results of the sequencing conducted from January 3 to 9.
“From the month of December onwards, the BA.2.3.20 subvariant was the most detected variant, comprising 46.35% of samples sequenced with assigned lineages, followed by the XBB subvariant (33.94%),” the DOH said.
It added that there is no variant of concern among the circulating variants in the country as “these subvariants have not yet been assigned their own World Health Organization label and will be tracked under Omicron until sufficient evidence arises showing that their virus characteristics are significantly different from the VOC they belong to.”
The Philippines has yet to detect the presence of XBB.1.5 subvariant—the most transmissible Omicron variant detected so far.
XBB.1.5 is a spinoff of the Omicron XBB subvariant, which is a recombinant of the Omicron BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 subvariants. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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