MANILA - The World Health Organization is the sole authority that can classify new COVID-19 variants, the Department of Health said Monday following reports of alleged variants delmicron, deltacron and flurona.

Experts are still studying the supposed new variants, the DOH said in a statement.

"Currently, no recorded cases here in the Philippines," it said.

Flurona, or a combination of the flu and the coronavirus, is not unusual as it was recorded in the Philippines' first COVID-19 patient, infectious disease specialist Dr. Edsel Salvana earlier said.

• 'Flurona': COVID, flu co-infections not unusual, expert says

The IHU or B.1.640 variant is being studied by experts in Institut Hospitalier Universitaire in France, the DOH earlier said.

Bloomberg meanwhile reported on what was dubbed as the "Deltacron" variant first identified in Cyprus, which supposedly has mutations from both the delta and omicron variants.

"These are initial studies, ang WHO lang po ang pwedeng magclassify...sa ngayon wala pa pong sapat na ebidensiya but of course we will be always cautious kaya nandyan po ang ating border controls," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said last week.

(These are initial studies, only the WHO can classify this as a variant...Right now we don't have enough evidence a but of course we will be always cautious that's why we have our border controls.)

The delta variant remains the prevalent lineage of COVID-19 in the Philippines with 8,497 cases as of Jan. 6.

• Philippines detects 29 more cases of COVID-19 omicron variant

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