CORONAVIRUS disease (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines continue to be dominated by the Omicron XBB subvariant and its various sublineages, based on the latest genome sequencing results of the Department of Health (DOH).
In its latest COVID-19 Biosurveillance Report, the DOH said 102 out of the 117 samples sequenced from July 11 to 12 were classified as XBB and its sublineages.
“From June 2023 onwards, XBB and its sublineages were the most detected variant,” said the DOH.
The XBB subvariant cases include four XBB.1.5 cases, 44 XBB.1.16 cases, 14 XBB.1.9.1 cases, 11 XBB.1.9.2 cases, and 20 XBB.2.3 cases.
All detected XBB subvariants were local cases from Western Visayas, Davao Region, and Cordillera Administrative Region.
The report also showed that there were five samples tagged as BA.2.3.20 that were detected from Western Visayas and Davao Region. — Gerard Naval
