AS the Department of Health (DOH) prepares to rollout bivalent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines, more cases of the Omicron subvariants and sublineages have been detected in the country.
Based on the department’s latest COVID-19 Biosurveillance Report, 134 out of the 139 samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center last May 22 were of Omicron subvariant and sublineage origins.
“Different Omicron subvariants have been on a continuous uptrend starting September 2022,” said the DOH in its report.
Among the Omicron subvariants and sublineages, meanwhile, the report showed that 100 samples were classified as XBB, which has been the observed trend in the country for the past two months.
Among the 100 XBB samples, 15 were XBB.1.5 cases, 16 were XBB.1.16 cases, 47 were XBB.1.9.1 cases, 10 were XBB.1.9.2 cases, and 7 were XBB.2.3 cases.
The report also showed that 33 samples were tagged as BA.2.3.20, while one case has been classified as other Omicron sublineage.
The other five samples sequenced were tagged as having “no assigned lineage” by the DOH.
To note, the bivalent jabs donated by the COVAX Facility are said to provide better protection against COVID-19 as they contain components of the Omicron variant and its subvariants.
