Philippines reports 520 additional Delta cases

The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday reported an additional 520 cases of the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant, bringing the total to 5,331.

Of the 748 samples sequenced, the DOH said 520 were positive for the Delta variant, 83 were positive for the Beta variant, and 64 were positive for the Alpha variant.

The DOH said the Delta variant remains to be the most common lineage sequenced nationally at 32.14%, followed by the Beta variant at 21.47%.

“Nakikita natin mula doon sa June samples natin where only 4.9% are comprised of Delta, now in the recent month of October, umabot na po ng 99.8% ng ating lineages ng sample positibo po sa Delta,” Health Epidemiology Bureau Director Dr. Alethea de Guzman said during the DOH Kapihan Session.

(We saw that from the June samples, only 4.9% were comprised of Delta. In the recent month of October, up to 99.8% of our samples were positive for Delta.)

De Guzman, however, stressed that the samples sequenced were targeted.

“So ito ‘yung isang posibleng dahilan bakit napakataas ng porsyento ng ating nase-sequence ay nagpopositibo hindi lamang sa Delta kundi sa iba’t ibang mga variants of concern,” she said.

(So this is one of the reasons why the percentage of sequenced samples tested positive not only for Delta but for other variants as well.)

She also said the cases were quickly isolated while those that were found after they have recovered completed their mandatory quarantine.

On Monday, the Philippines logged 3,117 new infections, bringing the nationwide tally to 2,790,375 and active cases to 43,185. —KBK, GMA News