(Eagle News) – Ten more cases of the two more transmissible Omicron variant sub-lineages have been detected recently, the Department of Health (DOH) announced on Tuesday, June 7.

There were seven more BA2.12.1 cases and three BA.5 cases in the latest sequencing run of 190 samples, where 114 are Omicron cases.

“Among the 114 new Omicron cases, additional emerging Omicron sublineages were detected:  BA.2.12.1 – 7 cases; BA.5 – 3 cases,” the DOH said.

Majority or 60 percent of the sequenced samples were Omicron cases at 114 cases, while 61 cases or 32.1 percent had no assigned lineages.

There were 14 new Delta cases, representing 7.4 percent of the sequenced samples.

“The Omicron variant is still the most common lineage detected,” the DOH said.

-103 new local Omicron cases-

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that of the 114 Omicron cases, 103 are local cases, three are returning overseas Filipinos, while eight are still being determined if they are local or not.

Vergeire said that 111 of these samples were “retrospective runs” or collected from August 2021 to April 2022, while 79 were from the usual runs collected as of May 2022.

-3 BA.5 cases already recovered-

Of the three BA.5 cases, two are from Region 4-A or the Calabarzon region, while the other one is still being located.

One of those from Calabarzon who had the BA.5 subvariant was unvaccinated, while the other case from the same region is still being verified if he or she has been fully vaccinated.

The other individual whose location is still being verified has been fully vaccinated.

The exposure and travel history of these three individuals with the BA.5 subvariant is “still unknown.”

All three cases, however have been tagged as already recovered.

As to the seven BA.2.12.1 subvariant cases, the DOH did not say if they have already recovered or not.

The BA.5 subvariant has been found to be more transmissible, and has been found in many countries where there had been a spike of cases. The BA.5 has been tagged as a “variant of concern.:

The BA.2.12.1 subvariant, on the other hand, has been identified as a sublineage of the currently circulating Omicron variant which had been flagged by the United States Center for Disease Control (US-CDC) after it noted “increasing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the US.

“The DOH COVID-19 surveillance system first detected BA.2.12.1 in two local cases from Metro Manila or the National Capital Region in April. These two cases “had no international travel history and were from the same cluster. Both cases experienced mild symptoms and tested positive last April 22, 2022. They are currently asymptomatic and have completed home isolation,” the DOH said.

The 12 BA.2.12.1 cases detected last month were 11 foreign nationals and one local cases from a tourist cluster in Palawan.

(Eagle News Service)