Sixteen new cases of Omicron XBB.1.16 were detected in Western Visayas, based on the latest biosurveillance report of the Department of Health (DOH) on May 22.
The more transmissible XBB.1.16 was the last COVID-19 strain detected in the country. It is classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization.
READ: 16 more Arcturus cases in PH, says DOH
Substrains
All 139 COVID-19 samples that were sequenced in the latest batch came from the Philippine Genome Center in Visayas.
READ: DOH reports 17 new cases of Arcturus Omicron subvariant
Of the total, 47 were of the XBB.1.9.1, 33 were of the BA.2.3.20 and 15 were of XBB.1.5.Ten were found as XBB.1.9.2, while seven others were of XBB.2.3. The rest either had no assigned COVID-19 lineage or were from “other XBB sublineages.”
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