The World Health Organization (WHO) representative to the Philippines confirmed local transmission of highly contagious Delta variant in the country.
“The information we have clearly shows that now, already, the Delta variant has emerged as the dominant variant,” Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said.
“With this kind of transmission, with these kinds of numbers, we are in community transmission of the Delta variant,” he added.
Community transmission means there is a clustering of cases and there are no longer links among infected individuals.
Abeyasinghe noted almost 70% of samples that underwent genome sequencing in the latest run tested positive for the Delta variant.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reported the Delta variant rose detection from 6% in June to 56% in August in a separate media briefing.
“This coincides with the start of a steeper rise in the number of cases in July, similar to what we saw previously at the start of our April peak in cases with the spread of the Alpha and Beta variants,” she noted.
She added the Delta variant had been detected in all 17 regions nationwide, except for the Bangsamoro region.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Rontgene Solante also said the variant might have spread across the country.
WHO confirms Delta variant local transmission in PH
“Ang hinala ko rito, Delta is already nationwide,” said Solante.
In the latest batch released by the Philippine Genome Center, out of 748 samples subjected to sequencing, 516 Delta variants appear for a total of 1,789.
It turns out that nearly 7 out of every 10 samples of people sequenced had Delta variant as the cause of illness.
Aside from the infection due to the Delta variant, the Philippines’ positivity rate has also reached 27.9 percent, far short of the World Health Organization’s benchmark of 5 percent.
Meanwhile, the WHO has yet to conclude if Delta variant spreads through airborne transmission, Abeyasinghe said.
“The evidence we have is that the Delta variant, although more transmissible, is still largely transmitted in aerosols. It’s not an airborne transmission,” the WHO official said.
“You don’t need double masking… what you need is diligence in following the minimum public health standards,” he stressed.
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