The recombinant variants of coronavirus are not yet present in the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

The DOH is currently monitoring the developments about the new recombinant variants called XE, XF, and XD.

“Wala pa tayong nadedetect nitong mga sinasabing recombinant na mga virus dito sa ating bansa. Wala pa tayong nadetect na (We have not yet detected these so-called recombinant viruses in our country. We have not detected the) XE, XF, at saka (and) XD,” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing on Friday, April 8.

Omicron variant remains the dominant variant in the samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC), said Vergeire.

“The latest sequencing result was last March kung saan ang ating Omicron variant is almost 80 percent of the samples na na-sequenced itong pinakahuli nating run (where Omicron variant is almost 80 percent of the samples that were sequenced this last run),” she said.

“Meron tayong nakita na Delta variant na dalawa kung saan galing ito sa Region 2 at Region 6. Maliban diyan, wala na tayong nakitang ibang variants or ibang sublineages nitong Omicron variant (We have detected two Delta variant cases in Region 2 and Region 6. Other than that, we have not seen any other variants or other sublineages of this Omicron variant,” she added.

Meanwhile, Vergeire reported that the PGC has already started to expand its operations in Visayas and Mindanao.

“For the PGC in Visayas and Mindanao, operational na sila (they are already operational). They started their operations I think that was middle of February of this year. They have an average output—per week ang expectation sa kanila 350 samples per week (their expected output is 350 samples per week),” she said.

“But unfortunately dahil mababa ang pagsusumite ngayon ng mga samples, hindi nila namamaximize ang kanilang capacity of 350 samples per week. Ang ating UP-PGC in Visayas, sila ay nag-aaverage ng 65 samples per week (because the submission of samples is quite low, they are not maximizing their capacity of 350 samples per week. The UP-PGC in Visayas have an average of 65 samples per week) and for PGC Mindanao, 98 samples per week,” she added.