Health authorities have detected 516 additional cases of the more transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant, increasing the tally of the infection that was first detected in India to 1,789, the Department of Health said yesterday.
In a statement, the DOH said that aside from the Delta variant, also detected were cases of Alpha variant with 73, Beta variant – 81, and Theta variant – 41, based on the latest whole-genome sequencing report by the Philippine Genome Center and the UP-National Institutes of Health.
It said 473 of the 516 additional Delta variant cases were local, 31 were returning overseas Filipinos, and 12 are currently being verified if these are local or ROF cases.
Of the 473 local cases, 114 had an indicated address in the National Capital Region, while 34 had been traced to Ilocos Region, 32 in Cagayan Valley, 64 in Central Luzon, 79 in Region 4-A or Calabarzon, 20 in Mimaropa, 16 in the Bicol Region, 13 in Western Visayas, 23 in Central Visayas, 12 in Zamboanga Peninsula, 48 in Northern Mindanao, 22 in Davao Region, and six cases in the Cordillera Administrative Region.
Based on the case line list, six are still active, five have died, while 505 cases have been tagged as recovered.
All other details are being verified by the local and regional health offices.
Meantime, of the new 73 Alpha variant cases detected, about 71 were local cases, two were ROFs, while one is being verified as either local or ROF case. All cases have been tagged as recovered.
To date, the country’s cases of Alpha variant, first detected in the UK, was logged at 2,395.
For the 81 new Beta variant cases that brought the total to 2,699, the DOH said 78 were local cases, two ROFs and one case being verified if local or ROF.
Based on the case line list, three patients have died and 78 have been tagged as recovered.
All the 41 P.3 variant cases were local, with one death, and 40 tagged as recovered.
“While the Alpha and Beta variant cases remain the highest in the country, there is a continuous and increasing detection of the Delta variant in communities,” the DOH said.
The DOH added it is closely monitoring with the Centers for Health Development and local government units the implementation of active case finding, aggressive contact tracing, testing and immediate isolation.
The public is urged to continue practicing the minimum public health standards at all times and to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
RECOVERIES
The country’s total number of recovered coronavirus disease 2019 cases has reached 1,777,693 after 17,922 new recoveries were reported yesterday.
In its latest case bulletin, the DOH noted that recoveries account for 91 percent of the total case count which has reached 1,791,003 since the start of the pandemic last year.
Meanwhile, 18,528 new infections brought the total number of active cases nationwide to 143,221.
About 95.3 percent of these active cases are mild, 2 percent are asymptomatic, 0.6 percent are critical, 1.1 percent are severe, and 1 percent are moderate.
Some 101 new deaths were also reported, pushing the country’s total number of Covid-19 fatalities to 33,109.
DOH data showed that, on Aug. 27, about 27.9 percent of 66,225 who were tested turned out positive for Covid.
“About 285 duplicates were removed from the total case count, and of these, 204 are recoveries. Moreover, 38 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” it added.
All laboratories were operational on Friday while seven laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
The DOH noted the seven non-reporting laboratories contribute, on average, 2.7 percent of samples tested, and 2.1 percent of positive individuals based on data in the last 14 days.
To date, 71 percent of 4,100 intensive care unit beds, 64 percent of 20,300 isolation beds, 70 percent of 14,800 ward beds, and 55 percent of 3,100 ventilators are utilized by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.*PNA
