PHL records local transmission of Arcturus coronavirus variant
OMICRON subvariant XBB.1.16, the latest known coronavirus variant, has been transmitted locally, the Department of Health confirmed on Tuesday, after authorities found the absence of linkages among three recent cases detected in central Philippines.
“Recent genome sequencing has revealed that there are additional three XBB.1.16 cases or Arcturus cases in Western Visayas, we confirm that,” Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told a news briefing streamed live via Zoom.
“Based on what we are seeing, there is already no linkage to any of these cases that we had been identifying,” she said. “There is a local transmission of Arcturus just like any of the different variants or the Omicron variant in the country.”
COVID-19 infections in the Philippines have been increasing recently, with the country posting 12,414 cases from May 8 to 14 — 31% higher than the cases from a week earlier.
The surge in infections is possibly driven by XBB 1.16, Fredegusto P. David of pandemic monitoring group OCTA said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
“Although genome sequencing has not shown a high number of XBB 1.16 cases, we only sequenced 2% of reported cases,” he said. “The most predominant strains in the country are versions of XBB — 1.9.1, 1.9.2, 1.16, 1.5.”
“The recent increase in cases should be a cause for awareness but not for concern,” he said. “If we protect ourselves, we reduce the chances of catching COVID.”
Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency.
The pandemic has been on a downward trend for more than a year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, noting that the trend has allowed “most countries to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19.”
On Jan. 30, 2020, the WHO declared the first recorded COVID-19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The health emergency was classified as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
