The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said the highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant is now the most dominant variant in the Philippines.
“The information we have clearly shows that now, already, the Delta variant has emerged as the dominant variant,” Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO Philippines country representative, said in an interview.
"With this kind of transmission, with these kinds of numbers, we are in community transmission of the Delta variant,” he continued.
Earlier, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed that community transmission of Delta variant in the areas of Metro Manila and Calabarzon.
The WHO official said nearly 70% of samples that were subjected to genome sequencing in the latest run tested positive for the Delta variant.
Abeyasinghe added that the WHO has yet to find evidence proving that the Delta variant can be spread through airborne transmission.
“The evidence we have is that the Delta variant, although more transmissible, is still largely transmitted in aerosols. It's not an airborne transmission,” he said.
