By Ma. Teresa Montemayor / Philippine News Agency
Additional 630 cases of the highly transmissible and dominant Delta variant of the coronavirus have been recorded nationwide, a health official said Monday.
In an online media forum, Department of Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the new Delta variant cases were from a total of 666 samples collected in March, September, October, and November and sequenced on November 12.
Of the samples collected and sequenced, about 630 or 94.59 percent were Delta variant cases, and one case or 0.15 percent of Alpha variant.
The new cases pushed the total Delta variant cases to 6,612 and Beta variant cases to 3,577.
Meanwhile, the total of Alpha variant cases remains at 3,129.
The latest sequencing brought the number of total sequenced samples with assigned lineages to 17,925 as of November 14.
Vergeire noted that all regions and all cities and municipalities in the National Capital Region (NCR) either have Alpha or Beta variants detected.
The Delta variant, initially detected from returning overseas Filipinos, is now detected in all 17 regions and all NCR cities and its lone municipality.
Meantime, the P.3 variant, which was initially observed in only one region, is now detected in all regions. (PNA)-rir
