The uptick of new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Metro Manila could be Delta-driven, an infectious disease expert said Thursday, July 22.
"I highly speculate that with the character, transmissibility of the Delta variant, there's already a local transmission," Dr. Rontgene Solante, head of adult infectious diseases department at San Lazaro Hospital said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
"Actually even the other variants like the UK variant or the South African variant can also cause this increase in cases, but correlating the report that Delta variant was already documented, then it's not far-fetched that maybe, this increase in cases can be variant-driven," Solante noted.
Meanwhile, OCTA Research group reported on Thursday that the reproduction number in Metro Manila soared to 1.15, meaning that 10 infected individuals can infect 11 people.
The reproduction number was 0.9 last week.
As of July 19, Metro Manila registered the highest number of cases at 941.
On Thursday, the Department of Health logged 12 new cases of the Delta variant, all of which are considered local cases.
The country now has a total of 47 Delta variant.
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