The highly transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has already overtaken the other strains that have been detected in the country, Philippine Genome Center (PGC) Executive Director Dr. Cynthia Saloma said on Monday, August 16.
"Dati marami tayong Beta at tsaka Alpha. Ngayon po sa ating mga samples na nai-sequence, pinakamarami na po and Delta variant (We used to have a lot of Beta and Alpha cases. Now there are more Delta cases in the samples we have sequenced)," Saloma said in a virtual media briefing.
So far, the country has detected 807 Delta variant cases.
" we started detecting the Delta cases in May, very, very few of the Delta mostly in the ROFs (returning overseas Filipinos). But eventually po in June we have detected 72 samples. But immediately within July ang taas po (it was very high) about 10-fold increase. About 721 cases of Delta in July," Saloma said.
She pointed out that Metro Manila has seen an "even more dramatic" increase in Delta variant cases as compared to the Alpha and Beta variants.
" wala tayong nakita na Delta in May pero sa June po meron tayong mga sampu at immediately within July ang bilis po ng pagtaas ng kaso nitong Delta in comparison to the Beta and Alpha cases (In Metro Manila, we didn't detect Delta in May but in June there were about 10 and immediately in July the increase in the number of Delta cases became faster as compared to Beta and Alpha cases)," Saloma explained.
"Nationally, based on samples submitted to us, mga 42 percent na po ng ating mga total sequences ang Delta. This is even more noticeable in the National Capital Region where from about 10.56 percent of cases in June nakikita natin na ang mga Delta ay nagte-take over na sa ating (we have seen that the Delta cases are already taking over our) Alpha at (and) Beta cases," she added.
The variant, first detected in India, spreads easily as chickenpox and is more transmissible than SARS, MERS, Ebola, common cold, flu, and smallpox, Saloma said.
She urged all Filipinos to continue wearing face masks as "vaccinated people carry huge amounts of the virus can be just as contagious as unvaccinated people."
"While as much as 75 percent of breakthrough cases with the Delta variant could happen, symptoms were milder, and 99.5 percent of deaths occurred in the unvaccinated," she added.