PHILIPPINE health authorities have detected 27 new cases of the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, bringing the total to 292.
The Arcturus cases were found in Western Visayas in central Philippines, the Department of Health (DoH) said in a report on Tuesday.
The agency has said the XBB.1.16 subvariant could evade people’s immunity and is likely to be more contagious.
The World Health Organization considers Arcturus, a descendent lineage of XBB, a “variant of interest.” XBB is recombinant of two BA.2 descendent lineages.
Health authorities also found 46 new cases of other Omicron subvariants, including 36 XBB cases — two XBB.1.5, 12 XBB.1.9.1, two XBB.1.9.2 and 18 XBB.2.3 cases and two other XBB sublineages. There were also nine BA.2.3.20 cases and one case of another Omicron sublineage.
All detected Omicron subvariants were local cases from Western Visayas, DoH said.
The government has been criticized for its limited sequencing capacity, more than three years into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday said it had given Pfizer, Inc.’s bivalent coronavirus vaccine a certificate of product registration, which is valid for five years.
It said people aged 12 years and above may use Pfizer’s Omicron BA.4-5 vaccine, which is sold under the trade name Comirnaty.
The DoH earlier this month allowed the use of the Pfizer bivalent vaccine as a third booster dose pending the arrival of COVID-19 bivalent vaccines in the country.
The Philippines last week started giving bivalent shots to health workers. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza