MANILA — The Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday it has identified all the close contacts of the country's omicron subvariant cases, noting that all of them were asymptomatic but some are still recovering.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the 3 close contacts of the newly identified BA.5 cases did not have symptoms and tested negative for COVID-19.

• COVID-19: Philippines detects 3 more cases of omicron BA.5

"Ito pong mga subvariants, mga individuals detected with these subvariants, na-contact trace naman po natin yung mga close contacts identified. Lahat naman po sa ngayon walang sintomas, naka-recover na po most of them," Vergeire said in a televised briefing.

"We have identified 3 close contacts doon sa bago nating detection ng BA.5 cases lahat po sila asymptomatic at lahat po sila negative ang test result," she added.

The health department vowed to observe the close contacts to make sure that the strain's transmission will be stopped.

The Philippines has a total of 5 omicron subvariant BA.5 cases so far, while there were 29 locally-detected BA.2.12.1 subvariant infections so far, DOH said.

• DOH: ‘Very high’ possibility BA.5 subvariant already locally transmitted
• COVID-19: Philippines detects 3 more cases of omicron BA.5

During the same briefing, the DOH said Metro Manila is seeing a slight rise in COVID-19 cases, with 14 out of 17 areas logging a positive growth rate in the past 7 days.

• DOH reports slight rise in COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila in past week

The local health unit of Quezon City, meanwhile, said the daily average new COVID-19 cases rose by 111 percent in the past week, prompting them to place the city under a yellow alert status.

This means that a surge is "possible" within the next 14 days.

— with a report from Johnson Manabat, ABS-CBN News

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Video from PTV