THE latest coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH) shows infections nationwide continue to dip, with the last seven days recording only 132 average daily cases.
The DOH also said its COVID-19 bio-surveillance report indicated that the Omicron XBB subvariant and its various sublineages remained dominant in the genome sequencing of 84 samples for the period of August 3 to 5.
The DOH said the 940 total cases recorded during the period of August 7 to 13 is five percent lower than infections reported from July 31 to August 6.
There were 11 additional severe and critical cases during the past week, while 20 deaths were reported.
There are now 238 severe and critical COVID-19 cases in the country, of which 184 are occupying ICU beds, or 10.5 percent of the 1,750 total nationwide.
On the other hand, the DOH bulletin said 2,214 patients nationwide are occupying COVID-19 beds, which is 14.4 percent of the 15,425 total COVID-19 beds allocated all over the country.
Meanwhile, the DOH’s bio-surveillance report showed that 78 cases out of the 84 samples were classified as XBB, which tallies one XBB.1.5 case, 25 XBB.1.16 cases, 17 XBB.1.9.1 cases, two XBB.1.9.2 cases, and 30 XBB.2.3 cases.
The DOH said all the detected XBB subvariant cases were local cases from Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol Region, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, Cordillera Administrative Region, and the National Capital Region.
“From June 2023 onwards, XBB and its sublineages were the most detected variant,” said the DOH.
Aside from the XBB, the genome sequencing report also showed there was one sample classified as BA.2.3.20 from Cagayan Valley, while two other samples were tagged by the DOH as “other Omicron sublineages.”
The other three samples, on the other hand, have no assigned lineages.
