DOH reports 21 new Delta variant cases; total now 3,387

The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday reported 21 new cases of the more contagious Delta variant, bringing the total Delta cases in the country to 3,387.

In a live briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said a total of 749 samples taken from April to June were sequenced.

Of this, 288 or 38.5% are Alpha variant cases, 309 cases or 41.3% are Beta variant cases, while 21 or 2.8% are Delta variant cases.

“These are retrospective samples because we wanted to complete our biosurveillance activities,” Vergeire said.

“Ibig sabihin ‘yung mga samples from the past months. If you will notice, our samples were from April to June dahil hindi pa siya masyadong nakakalat noon dito sa atin during that time that the samples were taken,” she later added.

(That means our samples from the past months. If you will notice,  our samples were from April to June because [the variant] has not spread yet much in our country during that time that the samples were taken.)

Vergeire said the National Capital Region has recorded the most number of Delta variant cases, followed by big regions such as Region III, Region IV-A, Region VI, Region X, and Region XI.

Meanwhile, a total of 13,852 samples with lineages have been sequenced.

The Delta variant, first detected in India, remains the most common lineage nationally with 24.5% of samples. The Beta variant, first detected in South Africa, comprised 23.3% of the sequenced samples, while the Alpha variant, first detected in the United Kingdom, comprised 20.6%.

Only 3 samples or 0.02% tested positive for the Gamma variant which was first detected in Brazil.

The Philippines has reported a total of 2,593,399 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday, of which 2,442,623 have recovered and 38,768 have died. —KG, GMA News