(REUTERS file photo)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) recorded three additional cases of the XBB.1.16 Omicron subvariant of COVID-19, more commonly known as “Arcturus,” bringing the total number of such cases to four.
Based on the DOH’s latest biosurveillance report — reflecting genome sequencing results from April 26 to May 6 — all three cases of the Arcturus subvariant were registered in Western Visayas, meaning, all infections were locally transmitted.
The DOH said the Arcturus subvariant is currently tagged by the World Health Organization as a variant of interest.
It is a sublineage of the Omicron, which has the ability to evade immunity and is said to be more transmissible.
The health department, however, assured the public that current evidence for XBB.1.16 does not suggest any differences in disease severity and clinical manifestations compared to the original Omicron variant.
Meanwhile, the same report also showed that a total of 159 infections belong to the XBB subvariant.
Aside from the three new Arcturus cases, the DOH also reported 72 cases of XBB.1.9 subvariant, 35 XBB.1.5, 13 XBB.1.9.2 and 36 other infections classified as “other XBB sublineages.”
The DOH also reported one additional infection of BA.5, 27 infections of BA.2.3.20, and 13 other sublineages of Omicron.
One other infection classified as an unspecified lineage was also recorded, while six had no assigned lineages.
The XBB Omicron subvariant is still the most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the country, with a total of 2,063 cases recorded, so far.
