DOH: 99.8% of COVID samples with lineages in October are of Delta variant

Test tube, coronavirus positive. STOCK PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday 520 new cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant and said that 99.8 percent of cases with lineages detected in October are of the said highly transmissible variant of SARS-CoV-2.

SAR-CoV-2 is the coronavirus first detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 which causes the potentially deadly respiratory illness COVID-19.

“In our most recent genome sequencing, we were able to detect additional variant of concern cases. We have an additional 520 Delta cases, additional 83 Beta, and 64 [cases of the] Alpha variant of concern,” DOH Epidemiology OIC-Director Dr. Alethea De Guzman told an online media forum.

“Nakikita po natin na mula sa June samples natin where only 4.9 percent are comprised of Delta, now in the recent month of October, umabot na ng 99.8 percent ang ating lineages na samples na positibo sa Delta,” she added.

(What we’re seeing is that from the June samples, where only 4.9 percent are comprised of Delta, now in the recent month of October, lineages of samples positive for Delta has already reached 99.8 percent,)

Overall, the DOH has found 16,589 total COVID-19 samples with lineages. These include 5,331 total cases of the Delta variant first detected in India, 3,562 cases of the Beta variant first detected in South Africa, 3,106 cases of the Alpha variant first reported in the United Kingdom, and three cases of the Gamma variant first detected in Brazil.

“The Delta variant is the most common lineage at 32.14 percent nationally among sequenced samples. Once detected in a region, it becomes the more common lineage,” said De Guzman.

Meanwhile, the Beta variant comprises 21.47 percent of all samples, making it the second most common lineage, followed by the Alpha variant that comprises 18.72 percent. The Gamma variant only composes 0.02 percent of the samples. The other cases from 16,589 samples were from other lineages that were not classified as variants of concern or interest.

In August, Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, country representative of the World Health Organization, confirmed that the Delta variant has become the most dominant variant in the Philippines.

KGA