Facade of the DOH main office in Manila. INQUIRER.net file photo
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) recorded three additional cases of the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant of COVID-19, bringing total cases to six.
According to the DOH’s latest biosurveillance report, sequencing samples from Feb. 20 to 24, all the new XBB.1.5 infections are local cases.
The XBB.1.5 according to World Health Organization senior epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, the XBB.1.5 as the most transmissible Omicron sub-variant that has been detected so far as it spreads rapidly because of the mutations it contains, allowing it to adhere to cells and replicate easily.
Aside from the said cases, the DOH also detected 118 other subvariants of omicron.
These include 60 cases of BA.2.3.20, 30 cases of XBB, 8 cases of XBC and 20 cases of other untagged omicron sub-lineages.
The report also showed that the BA.5 is still the most dominant COVID-19 variant in the Philippines, totaling 12,721 cases.
The DOH’s online COVID-19 tracker shows the country’s COVID-19 caseload is at 4,076,570, with 4,001,136 recoveries, 66,126 deaths and 9,308 active cases.
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