OCTA: 7% of COVID-19 cases in PH could be Delta variant

(FILE) Cavite CSWD distributes relief packs for the daily needs of residents in Addas 2C, Molino 2, Bacoor, Cavite during a temporary lockdown imposed by the LGU until August 9. Eight family members of a person who contracted the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant have also tested positive. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — Seven percent of the country’s COVID-19 cases could possibly be cases of the more transmissible Delta variant, the OCTA Research group said Wednesday as it repeated its call for the government to impose early lockdowns to stem the imminent spread of the variant.

OCTA Research fellow Guido David noted that the current genome sequencing efforts do not reflect the actual numbers of the COVID-19 variant cases in the country.

“This is what we know based on what we receive as information from bio-surveillance that we conduct and it was estimated at an average, but what we are saying is that approximately seven percent of cases nationwide are probably Delta variant,” he said in an online media forum.

“What they report in genome sequencing is probably not all the cases. Because we only sample an average of 100 cases per day but we know that we are averaging more than 6,000 cases per day in the whole Philippines. That’s a very small percentage of the cases,” he noted.

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier said it was conducting a “purposive” sampling for genome sequencing, testing COVID-19 positive samples mostly in areas where the increase of cases was observed.

David said that the Delta variant cases in the country are showing an increasing trend, similar to what was observed in the United Kingdom.

“Right now [we’re at] about seven percent. It has a margin of error, but the trend is it is increasing just like what we saw in the UK,” he said.

“It might be at the stage where it is low level but if we don’t control it soon, we might have a similar situation like the UK or the other Asian nations,” David added.

Data from the DOH show that as of July 24, the country has so far tested 9,351 samples for genome sequencing. From this number, a total of 119 cases of the Delta variant from India, 1,773 cases of Alpha variant from the United Kingdom, 2,019 cases of Beta variant from South Africa, and two cases of the Gamma variant from Brazil have so far been detected.

Health authorities earlier said the Delta variant is believed to be 60 percent more transmissible than the contagious Alpha variant. They also said that an Alpha-positive person can infect four to five persons, while a Delta-positive patient can infect up to eight individuals.

The country has 56,477 active cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday.

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