THE Department of Health (DOH) yesterday said 121 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases caused by various Omicron subvariants have been detected in the latest sequencing done by the Philippine Genome Center.
The DOH said the Omicron subvariants dominated the samples sequenced from February 20 to 24.
“Of the currently circulating variants, only Omicron and its subvariants have been identified,” it said.
Comprising nearly half of the sequenced samples are BA.2.3.20 with 60 cases, of which 59 were local cases from Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Mimaropa, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, and the National Capital Region.
One case was classified as a Returning Overseas Filipino (ROF).
There were also 33 cases of the XBB subvariant, including three which were classified as XBB.1.5.
One of the XBB cases was an ROF while 32 were local cases from Central Luzon, Mimaropa, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, and Caraga.
The latest sequencing results also showed eight (8) cases of XBC subvariant, which were all local cases from Mimaropa, Davao Region, and Soccsksargen.
The DOH said 20 sequenced samples were tagged as “other Omicron sublineages.”
The DOH also said there was a lone sample that was not classified under Omicron but had no lineage assigned.
