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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider PGC: Delta variant overtaking other COVID-19 variants in PH

PGC: Delta variant overtaking other COVID-19 variants in PH

Published Sep 2, 2021 12:34 pm

The highly transmissible Delta variant is overtaking other coronavirus disease (COVID-19) variants in the Philippines, the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) reported Thursday, Sept. 2.

(ALI VICOY / MANILA BULLETIN)

"In the beginning of months of April to May the vast majority of sequence of SARS-CoV variants are actually belonging to Alpha variant, but starting from April there's been a rapid of increase in the number of sequenced Delta variants," PGH Executive Director Dr. Cynthia Saloma, said during a virtual forum.

"In other countries in the world, such as US, they estimated that the current level of spread of the Delta variant is about 99 percent," she added.

The PGC also observed a steep increase in the proportion of sequence Delta variant cases in the Philippines.

"The proportion of variants of concern in the set of sequenced samples have reached over 90 percent since April 2021. The proportion of detected Delta variant cases increased by 42 percent from June to July," Saloma noted.

"The Delta variant is aggressively overtaking the other variants of concern," she added.

The World Health Organization earlier confirmed that there is now a community transmission of the Delta variant in the Philippines and is now the dominant COVID-19 strain in the country based on limited genome sequencing.

However, Saloma stressed that two doses of COVID-19 vaccine "is strongly protective" against the variant.

The country now has 1,789 known cases of the Delta variant.

The Philippines reported its first cases of the highly transmissible variant in May in two workers who returned from the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

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delta variant covid-19 PHILIPPINE GENOME CENTER
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