Philippines detects 97 more Delta variant cases, total at 216
MANILA, Philippines — (Updated 7:00 p.m.) Health officials on Thursday reported 97 new cases of the more infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 to push the country's total to 216.
The Department of Health said 88 of the additional infections are local cases, six are returning Filipinos from overseas and three still up for verification.
Authorities added that 94 cases have already been tagged as recovered. The number of fatalities has stood at 8, while there are 16 active cases remaining, per the DOH.
The Philippines last week confirmed there is now local transmission of the Delta variant. That has since stirred calls among experts for a two-week lockdown in the capital region.
Of the new cases, Central Visayas had the highest at 32, Metro Manila with 25, and Eastern Visayas with 10.
The health agency added that the six ROFs are crew members of vessels coming from Indonesia.
Two were seafarers of the MT Clyde and barge Claudia, docked in Albay, and four from the MV Vega.
Apart from Delta cases, the country also tallied 127 infections from the Beta, or the variant first detected in South Africa.
There were 83 cases of the Alpha as well, or that first seen in the United Kingdom. DOH added it detected 22 of the P.3, or the homegrown variant that has since been downgraded to "alerts under monitoring."
Local and global updates on COVID-19 cases, outbreaks and containment efforts due to the highly contagious Delta variant, first identified in India. (Main image: Lockdown in Sydney, Australia in June 2021 by AFP/Saeed Khan)
The Delta variant remains dominant and experts, governments and vaccine makers are urging people to take advantage of booster jabs where they are available.
Delta has proved able to evade vaccine defences against transmission better than the Alpha, Beta and Gamma COVID-19 variants.
But jabs have remained highly effective at preventing severe illness from Delta, lowering the risk of overwhelming hospital resources. — AFP
The DOH reports 520 new cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant, bringing the total in the Philippines to 5,331.
The new COVID-19 Delta subvariant has not yet been detected in the Philippines, the Department of Health says.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire says health authorities are monitoring 46 sublineages of the Delta variant, but “the particular Delta sublineage has not yet been detected among the COVID-19 positive samples sequenced in the country.”
Experts, however, are looking into the potential impact of the Delta AY.4.2. sublineage on transmissibility.
The Department of Health reports 633 additional cases of the Delta variant.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire says the additional infections account for 84.63% of the 748 samples tested on October 16.
The DOH reports 411 more cases of the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant in the country.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire says the new Delta variant cases come from 747 samples collected from February to September.
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