MANILA, Philippines — Multiple cases of the Omicron XBB.1.9.1 subvariant of COVID-19 were recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) from April 3 to 11.
According to the DOH in its latest biosurveillance report, The XBB.1.9.1 is an XBB sublineage recently added by the World Health Organization to its list of variants under monitoring.
Based on the report, a total of 54 cases had already been detected but only 39 were declared from the sample genome sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center (PCG) from April 3 to 11.
The majority or 35 of 39 sequenced cases were locally transmitted, while four were detected from incoming international travelers.
“The variant was initially flagged due to its increasing global prevalence and higher growth advantage. The variant has been detected in 63 countries or jurisdictions across six continents, according to sequence submissions in GISAID,” said the DOH in the report.
“However, currently available evidence for XBB.1.9.1 does not suggest any differences in disease severity and/or clinical manifestations compared to the original Omicron variant,” it added.
Meanwhile, the same report also noted that aside from the XBB.1.9.1 subvariant, PGC also recorded 160 additional variants of COVID-19 — 150 of which were subvariants of Omicron, while the other 10 had no lineages specified.
Of the 150, 75 belonged to the XBB subvariant (30 were XBB.1.5, while 40 were other XBB sublineages), 70 were cases of the BA.2.3.20, while two were recorded cases of the XBC subvariant.
CH.1.1, BQ.1, and “other omicron sublineages” logged one infection each.
The XBB subvariant, meanwhile, is the most dominant strain in the country, with a total of 1,1822 cases recorded.
The XBC followed second with a total of 761 cases; while the XBF subvariant had the least number of infections, accounting for only one infection.
RELATED STORIES
DOH: Daily COVID-19 infections projected to reach 289 to 611 by May 15