By Christine Fabro
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 10 new cases of the COVID-19 Indian variant – B1617.2 – in the Philippines on Saturday (May 15), which included a returning seafarer from Belgium and nine crew members of MV Athens Bridge.
This brings the total number of confirmed Indian variant cases to 12.
It was on Tuesday (May 11) when the DOH confirmed the country’s first two cases of the double mutant variant, the same day the the World Health Organization (WHO) declared such variant a global concern.
As of Sunday (May 16), the DOH reported a total of 54,904 (4.8%) COVID-19 cases here, with 1,069,868 (93.5%) recoveries, and 19,191 (1.68%) COVID-19-related deaths. – rir