INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Two more cases of EG.5, an Omicron subvariant under monitoring, had been detected in the country last week, according to the latest biosurveillance report of the Department of Health (DOH).
The data from July 26 to Aug. 1 showed that both were local cases, with one patient residing in Metro Manila, and the other in the Cordillera Administrative Region.
The two samples identified with the latest COVID-19 strain in the country was part of the 767 positive cases sequenced by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and the laboratories of the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center in Quezon City and Mindanao. The first 10 cases of the EG.5 in the country were detected in the genome sequencing conducted in mid-July. A sublineage of Omicron XBB.1.9.2, EG.5 was classified as a “variant under monitoring”—two levels below the highest category variant of concern—on July 19.
The DOH has also said that there is no current evidence that points to EG.5 as more severe compared to the original Omicron variant.
The various sublineages of XBB, including the EG.5, remain the dominant strains circulating in the country, accounting for 84.4 percent of sequenced COVID-19 samples. All are local infections, except for two XBB cases that came from returning Filipinos.