Philippines detects 177 more Delta variant cases; total now at 627

The Department of Health on Thursday reported 177 new cases of the highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant, raising the country's total tally to 627.

The DOH said 144 of the latest cases are local, three are returning overseas Filipinos, and 30 are still undergoing verification.

The local cases came from the following:

• National Capital Region (90 cases)
• CALABARZON (25 cases)
• Cagayan Valley (16 cases)
• Ilocos Region (8 cases)
• Cordillera Administrative Region (2 cases)
• Western Visayas (2 cases)
• Davao Region (1 case)

The DOH said 173 cases have been tagged as recovered, one has died, while the status of the three other patients are still being verified.

Other variants

Meanwhile, the DOH also detected 102 more Alpha variant cases, 59 Beta cases, and 14 cases of the P.3 variant.

The country now has a total of 2,195 Alpha cases and 2,421 Beta cases.

Among the 102 new Alpha cases, 94 are local and eight are still being verified. One case is still active, while 101 cases have recovered from the illness.

Out of the 59 additional Beta cases, 53 are local and six are still undergoing verification. One case is still active, while 57 cases have been tagged as recovered. One case is still being verified.

Further, among the 14 new P.3 variant cases, 13 are local and one case is still being verified. Two cases have died, while 12 have defeated the respiratory disease.

The DOH said the effect of the enhanced community quarantine will "take some time" to be reflected in the case statistics and "a continuous increase" in the number of cases can still be expected in the coming days. — RSJ, GMA News