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MANILA, Philippines — A total of 121 new Omicron subvariant cases were detected in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded.
Based on the samples sequenced by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the University of the Philippines’ Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) from February 20 to 24, out of the 122 positive samples, 121 were classified as Omicron subvariants.
DOH said that out of 121 cases, 60 were classified as BA.2.3.20, 33 were classified as XBB (including three cases classified as XBB.1.5), eight as XBC, and 20 as other Omicron sublineages.
Under the BA.2.3.20 cases, the agency revealed that “59 were local cases from Regions 2, 3, 4B, 11, 12, and NCR while one case was classified as a Returning Overseas Filipino (ROF).”
On the other hand, among the 33 XBB cases, 32 locals were from Regions 3, 4B, 11, 12, and Caraga (including three XBB.1.5 cases), while one case was a ROF.
Meanwhile, the DOH records showed that all additional XBC cases were from Regions 4B, 11, and 12.
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