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MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said the overall risk assessment from the XBB.1.16 COVID-19 variant is low and the single case that was found in Iloilo City recently was asymptomatic and the patient had already recovered.
The latest variant to enter the country was found among the 89 positive samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center-Visayas, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, and San Lazaro Hospital from April 12 to 17.
The latest weekly COVID-19 case bulletin showed that the average daily new infections climbed by 32 percent to 450 from April 17 to 23, compared to 341 in the previous week.
DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire stressed that cases and hospitalizations remained at a low risk despite the increase.