The Philippines reported 21 fresh cases of COVID-19 Delta variant, which were detected from the samples collected in the past months.
Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said 749 samples that were taken during the period of April to June were sequenced on Oct. 2.
Of the number, Vergeire said 288 or 38.5 percent are Alpha variant cases, 309 or 41.3 percent are Beta variant cases, and 21 or 2.8 percent are Delta variant cases.
“These were retrospected samples from April to June of 2021 that is why you might be wondering why Delta variant has a low number,” Vergeire explained in a virtual briefing Monday, Oct. 4.
“Ibig sabihin ‘yung mga (This means that) samples from the past months. If you will notice, our samples were from April to June kaya wala masyadong Delta cases na nadetect dahil hindi pa siya masyadong nakakalat noon dito sa atin (so there aren't too many Delta cases detected because it hasn't spread yet) during that time that the samples were taken,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Health official said 13,852 samples with lineages have been sequenced so far, 68.3 percent of which were positive for the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants.
Of these, 24.5 percent of which were positive for the Delta variant, 23.3 percent were positive for the Beta variant, while 20.6 percent are positive for the Alpa variant.
Vergeire said there are now a total of 3,387 cases of Delta variant detected in the country.
The National Capital Region, she added, has recorded the most number of Delta variant cases, followed “big regions” such as Regions 3, 4-A, 6, 10, and 11.