The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed Friday the local transmission of the highly contagious Omicron XBB subvariant and XBC variant.
During an online town hall meeting, Dr. Alethea De Guzman, director of DOH’s epidemiology bureau, said the country’s XBB and XBC cases are not linked to travel.
“Definitely, there is local transmission because all these are local cases. This means that we cannot link them to either travel outside the Philippines or exposure from someone who has recently traveled outside the Philippines,” she said.
“They got infected here,” the Health official added.
De Guzman noted the transmission is still “localized” because the variants were detected in select regions.
“We cannot say that it’s nationwide or wide-scale community transmission,” she said.
Earlier this week, the DOH earlier reported the detection of the omicron XBB subvariant and XBC variant.
The XBB, first detected in India in August 2022, is a recombinant of 2 omicron subvariants.
At present, it has been detected in at least 24 countries and four continents and has been the primary cause of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Singapore, the DOH said.
Preliminary studies suggest that the XBB variant shows higher immune evasion ability than the BA.5 variant, but there is no sufficient evidence that this variant causes more severe illness.
Of the 81 XBB cases in the country, 70 have recovered and 8 are stillundergoing isolation while the status of the remaining 3 cases is still being verified. None have died from XBB.
Meanwhile, the XBC variant is a recombinant of the omicron BA.2 and delta (B.1.617.2) variant.
As of October 3, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency classified the XBC variant as a variant under monitoring and investigation.
However, the World Health Organization and the European Centers for Disease Control have yet to determine the risk this variant poses.
Of the 193 XBC cases in the country, 176 have recovered, three are still undergoing isolation and the status of the remaining 9 cases is still being verified. Five people have died due to the XBC variant.