MANILA – Western Visayas registered close to a hundred additional cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Omicron subvariant BA.5, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual presser that 99 more individuals in Region 6 tested positive for the said variant.
The 99 additional cases in the region were including in the 140 additional Omicron subvariant BA.5 cases in the Philippines announced on Thursday.
“Sa kasalukuyan, hindi pa natutukoy ang exposure ng mga individuals at inaalam pa rin po ang travel history ng mga ito,” Vergeire said.
Overall, Vergeire said, the Philippines has a total of 233 BA.5 cases in the country, 129 are now tagged as recovered, four are still under isolation, while the rest are still being identified.
Of the new BA.5 cases, 16 individuals were fully vaccinated, three were unvaccinated, while vaccination status of the remaining 121 cases are still being verified by authorities.
Aside from the Omicron subvariant BA.5, Vergeire also said there were four additional cases of COVID-19 BA.2.12.1 recorded in the Western Visayas.
The four new cases were among the additional 20 cases of BA.2.12.1 in the country, to bring up the total number of infected to 70.
The BA.5 were added to the World Health Organization’s monitoring list in March and designated as variants of concern by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Meanwhile, the BA.2.12.1 was also flagged by the United States Center for Disease Control due to the observed increasing cases in the United States.
“It is still important for us to continue with the compliance on minimum public health standards and receiving the primary vaccine series and booster shots,” Vergeire said./PN