9 Delta variant cases got COVID-19 jabs, showed mild symptoms — DOH
MANILA, Philippines — New details came to light on the country’s Delta variant cases on Monday, as the Department of Health reported that nine of those infected had already been vaccinated for COVID-19.
Authorities on Sunday reported 55 additional cases of the highly transmissible variant, with the overall count since climbing to 119.
DOH said it is still verifying the vaccination status of most of the cases, or 86 of the total.
But it added that four of the 119 are already complete with their two doses. Five, meanwhile, had received their initial shot.
Of those fully inoculated, three had mild COVID-19 while the last was asymptomatic. Among those with first dose, three were also mild cases and two did not show symptoms.
At least 24 Delta variant cases were unvaccinated, the DOH added. Two of the confirmed deaths also did not receive the jabs.
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in a briefing stressed that vaccines continue to work against COVID-19 and its variants.
“When we look at infections in hospitals today compared to before,” she said in Filipino, “the number of health workers infected has gone down and those hospitalized are the unvaccinated.”
This month, DOH said the Department of Science and Technology would study breakthrough infections among persons complete with their COVID-19 jabs.
No surge, community transmission yet
Vergeire admitted they are seeing an uptick in additional cases across the country, but said this could not classify yet as a new surge.
“A surge has a definition in epidemiology which is not happening right now,” she said in mixed English and Filipino. “Cases are going up, that we can verify.”
In the last two weeks, the health official added that six regions showed trend reversals, or from a negative to a positive growth rate.
These are: Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, CALABARZON, Central Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Metro Manila.
Cordillera Administrative Region and Ilocos Region, Vergeire said, have had positive growth rates as well for six weeks now.
DOH is also closely monitoring 26 provinces due to high average attack rates, or exhibiting low to moderate two-week growth rate.
The Philippines last week confirmed there is now a local transmission of the Delta variant. Per Vergeire, it meant authorities are now seeing a relationship of the different cases among each other.
Community transmission is still different, which she said authorities have yet to confirm. That would mean already many cases but no longer seeing linkage.
“We are still studying that,” Vergeire continued in Filipino. “We need to wait for the phylogenetic analysis by the Philippine Genome Center so we can have appropriate evidence to say that."
Local and global updates on COVID-19 cases, outbreaks and containment efforts due to the highly contagious Delta variant, first identified in India. (Main image: Lockdown in Sydney, Australia in June 2021 by AFP/Saeed Khan)
The Delta variant remains dominant and experts, governments and vaccine makers are urging people to take advantage of booster jabs where they are available.
Delta has proved able to evade vaccine defences against transmission better than the Alpha, Beta and Gamma COVID-19 variants.
But jabs have remained highly effective at preventing severe illness from Delta, lowering the risk of overwhelming hospital resources. — AFP
The DOH reports 520 new cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant, bringing the total in the Philippines to 5,331.
The new COVID-19 Delta subvariant has not yet been detected in the Philippines, the Department of Health says.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire says health authorities are monitoring 46 sublineages of the Delta variant, but “the particular Delta sublineage has not yet been detected among the COVID-19 positive samples sequenced in the country.”
Experts, however, are looking into the potential impact of the Delta AY.4.2. sublineage on transmissibility.
The Department of Health reports 633 additional cases of the Delta variant.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire says the additional infections account for 84.63% of the 748 samples tested on October 16.
The DOH reports 411 more cases of the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant in the country.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire says the new Delta variant cases come from 747 samples collected from February to September.
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