THE Department of Health (DOH) yesterday said the Omicron XBB subvariant and its sublineages continue to dominate in the Philippines based on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) samples subjected to genome sequencing.
The DOH said that from July 2023 onwards, XBB and its sublineages have been the most detected variants in the country.
In its latest COVID-19 biosurveillance report, the DOH said that of the 184 samples sequenced from September 11 to 12, 154 cases were classified as XBB.
These include 6 XBB.1.5 cases, 41 XBB.1.16 cases, 26 XBB.1.9.1 cases, 1 XBB.1.9.2 case, and 71 XBB.2.3 cases.
The health department said all detected XBB subvariant cases were local cases from all regions except in Bicol Region, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The report also showed one case tagged as “other Omicron sublineage”.
The remaining 29 samples have no assigned lineages, according to the DOH.
