THE Department of Health (DOH) has detected the country’s first two cases of BA.2.75 Omicron subvariant, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Tuesday, August 2, 2022.

Vergerie said the two cases were from Western Visayas. Both have already been tagged as recovered.

One of them was partially vaccinated, while the other was unvaccinated.

She said the exposure to the virus, travel histories, and health status of the two cases are still being verified.

The BA.2.75 was dubbed “Centarus” due to its rapid spread. It was first detected in India in May and in 10 other countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia, in the following months.

Earlier, infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said Centarus may be more transmissible than the other Omicron subvariants and that it also has the capability to evade vaccine protection, as well as immunity from recent coronavirus infection.

Meanwhile, Vergeire said 1,015 additional cases of the BA.5 Omicron subvariant has been detected in the latest genome sequencing.

All regions have additional BA.5 cases except for Zamboanga Peninsula and Northern Mindanao.

Of the new cases, 883 have been tagged recovered, 84 are still under isolation, while the status of others is still being verified.

The country so far has a total of 3,012 BA.5 cases. (SunStar Philippines)