MANILA – An additional 426 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 506 samples collected in March, April, September, October, and November and sequenced on November 20.
Of the samples collected and sequenced, about 426 or 84.19 percent were Delta variant cases, 10 cases or 1.98 percent Alpha variant, and 18 cases or 3.56 percent are Beta variant.
The new cases pushed the total Delta variant cases to 7,038, Alpha variant cases to 3,139, and Beta variant cases to 3,595.
The latest sequencing brought the number of total sequenced samples with assigned lineages to 18,383 as of November 21.
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)
