The Department of Health says that the highly transmissible Delta COVID-19 variant is present in almost all regions of the Philippines.
“Lahat po ng regions, based on the recent run, meron na. Pero ang Caraga po wala pa po kaming nade-detect,” the DOH said.
The DOH said that three cases of Filipinos from the Caraga region with Delta variant are returning Filipinos and not local cases.
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“But it doesn’t mean that they (Caraga) do not have the variant. Katulad nga ng sabi natin, ‘yung sampling po kasi na ginagamit natin doesn’t really cover that much of the population for us to determine kung nasaan na siya sa mga regions,” Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.
The DOH said that the Delta variant is potentially driving the cases to go up.
“Talagang mukhang ‘yung proportion ng Delta variant dito sa ating bansa, based on this initial and very rough analysis, ay mukhang tumataas po talaga,” she said.
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OCTA research group said that the Lambda variant is not yet a cause for concern for now but insists that the Delta variant is the one driving new cases.
“Variant of interest ang Lambda. Hindi pa naman siya variant of concern. Kulang pa ang impormasyon kung mas nakakahawa siya o vaccine resistant siya,” OCTA professor Guido David said.
“Wala pa tayong masyadong impormasyon. Hindi pa tayo puwedeng maging alarmed sa Lambda variant. Ang Delta variant talaga ang pinaka-primary threat dito sa ating bansa sa ngayon,” he added. (TDT)
