There remains no cases of the more contagious Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 in the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday, Jan. 3.
"To date, there are currently no cases of XBB.1.5 detected in the country," the DOH said in a statement.
The DOH assured that the government "continues to implement Covid-19 surveillance and monitoring activities, and is confident in detecting potential variants that may enter the country."
Filipinos were reminded by the DOH that Covid-19 variants will continue to "emerge and re-emerge."
"What's important is we continue to employ our layers of protection such as sanitation, masking, distancing, vaccination and boosters, as well as good ventilation to keep cases manageable and prevent virus transmission," the DOH said.
This subvariant of the Omicron variant caused at least 40 percent of the current Covid-19 cases in the US, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed.
"There’s no indication it causes more severe illness than any other omicron virus," the NBC News reported, citing Dr. Barbara Mahon of the US CDC’s Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division.
Tuesday's Covid-19 cases
In a related development, the DOH recorded 174 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday.
The number of active infections nationwide was at 12,362, the DOH said.
Most of the new cases were still recorded in the National Capital Region with 2,906. Next was Calabarzon with 1,386; Central Luzon with 664, Western Visayas with 364, and Cagayan Valley with 287.
Since 2020, the Philippines has already recorded 4,200,225 confirmed infections. This includes 4,122,428 recoveries and 65,435 fatalities.
Hospital bed occupancy is still at low-risk with 17.9 percent utilization, the DOH said.