MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health reported Monday 571 more cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing that 90.78% of the 629 newly-sequenced samples were found to have the Delta variant.
The Delta variant, which was first detected in India, accounts for 40.54% of the 19,305 samples with lineages in the country.
Vergeire also reported one case of the Alpha variant and another case of the Beta variant.
The figures pushed the total number of Alpha variant cases to 3,168 and Beta variant cases to 3,630.
Philippine authorities have yet to detect a case of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. But the DOH urged the public to be vigilant.
“All of us just need to be cautious, be prepared so in the event that studies suggest the Omicron variant is more transmissible and has more severe characteristics than the Delta variant, then we are all prepared,” Vergeire said in Filipino.
The heavily mutated variant was classified a variant of concern by the World Health Organization.
The DOH reported Sunday 603 additional COVID-19 infections, pushing the country’s caseload to over 2.83 million. Of the total, 0.5% were active cases. — Gaea Katreena Cabico