COVID-19 Delta variant detected in all PH regions except Caraga

MANILA, Philippines — The highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant has already been detected in all regions in the country, except the Caraga region, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

However, the health department is already assuming that the Delta variant has already invaded the said region since the genomic biosurveillance capability of the country does not cover “that much of the population,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

“Sa ngayon, based on our specimen sample, all regions [have Delta variant] except Caraga. So lahat ng regions based on the recent run, mayroon na, pero ang Caraga wala pa kaming nade-detect but it does not mean that they don’t have the variant,” she said in an online media forum.

(For now, based on our specimen sample, all regions already have the Delta variant except Caraga. So all regions, based on the recent run, have the variant, but we have not yet detected it in Caraga. But this does not mean that they don’t have the variant.)

“‘Yung sampling na ginagamit natin, it doesn’t really cover that much of the population for us to determine kung nasaan na siya sa mga regions. Sa ngayon, we still assume na mayroon na rin [sa Caraga],” she added.

(Our sampling does not really cover much of the population to determine where the variant already is in the regions. For now, we are assuming that it has also penetrated the Caraga region.)

The Philippines has so far detected a total of 809 Delta variant cases, after the Department of Health announced the detection of additional 182 cases on Sunday.

The DOH earlier said the Delta variant has been detected in all cities and the lone municipality in Metro Manila.

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