The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday confirmed that the highly contagious Delta COVID-19 variant has been detected in all 16 cities in Metro Manila and its lone municipality Pateros.
"We detected Delta in all 17 cities and municipality in NCR," the DOH said in a statement.
Metro Manila is currently under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) – the strictest lockdown status – from August 6 until August 20, 2021 in a bid to combat the spread of the Delta variant.
According to DOH's latest data, Las Piñas recorded 23 cases of Delta variant – the highest among the cities – followed by Pasig with 21 cases, Manila with 16 cases, and Malabon with 12 cases.
In a media briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire tagged the municipalities of Pateros and Malabon City as areas under critical risk with a high-risk two-week growth rate and average daily attack rate (ADAR).
She added that all areas, except Caloocan City and Marikina City, have high-risk ADAR.
So far, the Philippines has 331 known cases of the Delta variant, following the 116 new cases reported by the DOH on Thursday.
Of the said number, 12 cases remain active while the rest were already tagged as recovered.
