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BAGUIO CITY––A new COVID-19 subvariant, Omicron BA 2.12, had been detected in a foreign visitor to a university in this city, but infections in Baguio and the Cordillera region remained low, the Department of Health (DOH) announced Wednesday, April 27.
BA 2.12 is a highly transmittable mutation of the Omicron variant, which spread in the United States and has been detected in South Korea.
A 52-year-old woman from Finland, who traveled to Baguio to lecture on digital loom weaving, contracted the subvariant, said epidemiology nurse Karen Lonogan of the DOH in the Cordillera.
The woman had been classified as recovered and had returned to her country, Lonogan said.
This is the first BA 2.12 case in this part of the country. No one has caught the mutated virus.
Baguio has exceeded its vaccination targets, but neighboring Benguet province and Ifugao have yet to vaccinate 70 percent of their residents.