The Philippines has reported 10 more cases of the highly transmissible Omicron BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 subvariants, according to the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday.
In a media briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they have detected three more cases of the BA.5 subvariant and seven more for the BA.2.12.1 subvariant.
BA.5 subvariant
Of the three additional BA.5 cases, Vergeire said two are from Calabarzon while the third one is still being verified.
Vergeire said the individual whose location is still being verified is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 while one of the cases in Calabarzon is unvaccinated. Their travel histories and exposures have yet to be confirmed by the agency.
"'Yung dalawa dito, nakolekta 'yung kanilang samples nung May 23, tapos 'yung isa nakolekta nung May 12. So 'yung ibang detalye, we are still verifying kasi kakabigay palang sa amin ng Philippine Genome Center itong mga resulta na 'to," Vergeire said.
[Of the three cases, two samples were collected on May 23 while the other was on May 12. So for the other details, we are still verifying since the Philippines Genome Center has just submitted to us the results.]
Vergeire also noted that the three new cases have all been tagged as recovered by the DOH.
So far, the country has now five reported cases of the Omicron BA.5 subvariant.
BA.2.12.1 cases
Meanwhile, of the seven cases of the BA.2.12.1 subvariant, three were from the National Capital Region, one from the Ilocos Region, one from Cagayan Valley, one from Calabarzon, and one from the Bicol Region.
According to Vergeire, three are fully vaccinated, three are unvaccinated, and one is still being verified.
The DOH said the Omicron variant is still the most common lineage detected in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the agency also reported 14 new Delta variant cases, one case with other lineage assigned, while 61 cases had no lineage assigned.
She said 111 of the total samples were retrospective, meaning they were collected from August 2021 to January to April 2022 while 79 were collected in May.
