The Department of Health (DOH) announced 910 new cases of Omicron subvariants in the country, wherein the majority of these cases consist of BA.5 subvariant.
During the DOH’s first in-person briefing after two years, DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said 816 of these cases were BA.5 subvariant.
Vergeire said that “686 individuals are now tagged as recovered, 78 are still undergoing isolation, while the outcome of the rest (52) are being verified,
Of the BA.5 cases, 560 of them were fully vaccinated while the vaccinatoon status of the 256 others are still being verified, said Vergeire.
Based on the latest genome sequencing run, "all regions detected the variant except the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said Vergeire.
Based on her presented data, most of the new BA.5 subvariant cases were detected in Region 6 with 309 new cases, followed by Metro Manila with 145, Region 4a with 106, Region 11 with 69, Region 2 with 56, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with 41, Region 3 with 14, Region 5 and Region 4B with 13 cases each, Region 7 with 12, Region 12 with eight cases, Region 1 with five cases, Region 8 and Region 10 with four cases each, Region 9 with three cases, and Caraga with two cases.
The other 12 cases involved returning overseas Filipinos, said Vergeire.
There are now a total of 1,108 BA.5 cases in the Philippines.
BA.4 cases
On the other hand, 42 additional cases of BA.4 were reported by the DOH on Wednesday.
Ten individuals from Region 12, nine from Region 11, seven from Region 6, four each from Metro Manila and Region 5, three cases from Region 4A, one each from CAR and BARMM, and three ROFs tested positive for BA.4, said Vergeire.
"Thirty-six individuals are now tagged as recovered, five are still undergoing isolation, while the outcome of one case is still being verified," said Vergeire.
"Thirty-one individuals are fully vaccinated while the vaccination status of the remaining 11 individuals are still being verified," she added.
Vergeire said that the Philippines already has 54 cases of BA.4 subvariant.
BA.2.12.1 subvariant
Also, 52 new cases of BA.2.12.1 were detected in the Philippines.
Vergeire said these cases were from Regions 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 4A, CAR, Caraga, and Metro Manila.
She noted that 26 of these cases were already fully vaccinated, five were partially vaccinated, while the vaccination status of the 21 others are still being verified.
"Forty-nine individuals are now tagged as recovered while the outcome of the remaining three are still being verified," said Vergeire.
With this, the total number of BA.2.12.1 in the country increased to 139.