(Eagle News) — The Department of Health on Friday, July 16, reported hundreds of additional Alpha and Beta variant cases in the country.
The Alpha variant was first detected in the United Kingdom, and the Beta variant in South Africa.
In its report, the DOH said, in particular, the department, the Philippine Genome Center, and the Philippine General Hospital detected 264 more Alpha variant cases and 299 more Beta variant cases.
The results were based on the sequencing of 8,557 samples, 3,424 of which tested positive for a variant of the coronavirus.
The additional variant cases pushed the total of Alpha variant cases in the Philippines to 1481, and the total of Beta variant cases to 1,685.
“We need to strengthen the implementation of our PDITR (Prevention, Detection, Isolation, Treatment, and Reintegration) strategies and expand the capacity of the local healthcare capacity to manage possible surge in cases,” the DOH said in a statement.
According to the same report, 55 more Theta variant cases have also been reported.
However, the World Health Organization earlier downgraded the status of the variant first seen in the Philippines from a variant of concern to an “alert for further monitoring.”
The DOH report also said the Gamma variant cases in the Philippines remain at two.
Earlier, the DOH announced 16 more Delta COVID-19 variant cases have been detected in the Philippines, bringing the total to 35.
Of the 16, the DOH said 11 were local COVID-19 Delta variant cases. Five were returning overseas Filipinos.