MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has detected its first case of Omicron subvariant FE.1, which is classified as a variant under monitoring by the European Union’s public health agency.
This was according to the Department of Health’s biosurveillance report on May 29 to June 12.
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FE.1 is a sublineage of XBB added to the list of variants under monitoring by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on June 1.
Also known as XBB.1.18.1.1, FE.1 was initially flagged for its increasing global prevalence and has been detected in 35 countries.
“However, currently available evidence for the variant does not suggest any differences in disease severity and/or clinical manifestations compared to the original Omicron variant,” the DOH said.
It added that researchers are currently characterizing FE.1 in terms of transmissibility, immune evasion, and ability to cause more severe disease.
The University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center also detected 374 XBB.1.5 cases, 199 XBB.1.16 cases, 747 XBB.1.9.1 cases, 104 XBB.1.9.2 cases, 198 XBB.2.3 cases, 206 BA.2.3.20 cases, 34 XBC cases, four BA.5 cases, six BA.2.75, and 26 other Omicron sublineages out of 2,340 sequenced samples.
The Philippines has confirmed over 4.1 million COVID-19 cases, including 66,482 deaths, since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. There were 8,861 active cases.