DOH reports 16 new Arcturus cases, total now 44 | ABS-CBN

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DOH reports 16 new Arcturus cases, total now 44

DOH reports 16 new Arcturus cases, total now 44

ABS-CBN News

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Creative rendition of SARS-CoV-2, displaying 3D prints of virus particles (colorized red and teal/blue; the red virus surface is covered with teal/blue spike proteins that enable the virus to enter and infect human cells), and a background image that is a colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (blue) infected with the Omicron strain of the virus (red). Credit: NIAID
Creative rendition of SARS-CoV-2, displaying 3D prints of virus particles (colorized red and teal/blue; the red virus surface is covered with teal/blue spike proteins that enable the virus to enter and infect human cells), and a background image that is a colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (blue) infected with the Omicron strain of the virus (red). Credit: NIAID

MANILA — The Philippines has detected 16 new cases of the omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, raising its tally to 44, according to the Department of Health.

The 16 local "Arcturus" cases were found in Western Visayas, the DOH's latest COVID-19 biosurveillance report showed.

XBB.1.16 is a descendent lineage of XBB, a recombinant of two BA.2 descendent lineages.

The DOH previously said the strain is capable of evading immunity and appears to be more contagious than previous variants.

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The agency also earlier confirmed the local transmission of XBB.1.16 "since there is an increasing number of cases of the variant with no linkages to international cases or no known history of exposure".

The agency also detected 118 new cases of omicron subvariants.

Of the figure, some 84 were classified as XBB, including 15 XBB.1.5 cases, 47 XBB.1.9.1 cases, 10 XBB.1.9.2 cases and 7 XBB.2.3 cases; 33 as BA.2.3.20, and 1 case as other omicron sublineages.

These are results of the latest sequencing run conducted by the University of the Philippines - Philippine Genome Center Visayas on May 22.

"All recently detected subvariants were local cases from Region 6," the DOH report read.

"Please note that results above must be interpreted with caution, since this is primarily affected by sampling biases and other factors such as logistical issues encountered."

As of June 1, the country has 15,418 active COVID-19 cases, the DOH's COVID-19 Tracker showed.

Of some 4.1 million infections logged since the start of the pandemic, 66,466 led to death.

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