(UPDATED) Health authorities have detected an additional 16 cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) caused by the highly contagious Delta variant (B.1.617.2), including 11 local cases.
These are the first local cases of the Delta variant in the Philippines, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press conference on Friday, July 16, 2021.
Of the 11 local cases, Vergeire said six are part of a large cluster of Covid-19 cases in Northern Mindanao, with onset dates of June 23 to 28. All have been tagged as recovered.
Two cases were reported in the National Capital Region (NCR). One died after being rushed to the hospital on June 28. The other case, with an onset date of June 23, was tagged as recovered.
One case with an onset date of June 27 was tested in the NCR but has an indicative address in Central Luzon. This has also been tagged as recovered.
All three cases in NCR have no known connection with each other, Vergeire said.
Two cases were detected in Western Visayas. Both, which had an onset date of May 27, have been tagged as recovered.
The five other Delta cases were returning overseas Filipinos. One arrived from the United Kingdom and two came in from Qatar. All completed the 14-day quarantine and have been tagged as recovered.
The DOH is still verifying the arrival details of the two other ROF cases and their quarantine status.
These 16 new cases brought the total cases of Delta in the country to 35, with two mortalities. The rest have recovered.
No local transmission
Dr. Alethea de Guzman, director of the Epidemiology Bureau, said they have yet to determine whether the local Delta cases are connected.
“As of now, what we can say is that we have local cases. As Dr. Edsel (Salvaña) said, (the cases are) sporadic. Clustering is observed but we are still investigating whether the cases are linked. We also hope to establish the source of infection,” De Guzman said.
Asked to categorically say whether there is local transmission of the Delta variant, De Guzman said, “For me, I would say not yet because we haven’t been able to link that one case has been able to infect another.”
Local transmission occurs when a local case, which means the patient has had no travel history, has infected and caused another local case. Community transmission occurs when transmission becomes widespread and the source of infection can no longer be traced.
Dr. Cynthia Saloma, University of the Philippines Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) executive director, said these local cases were 100 percent introduced by travelers who came in from other countries.
“Don’t believe that this Delta variant evolved locally. For it to be called Delta, it should contain the hallmark mutations of Delta,” she said.
The UP-PGC also detected 264 additional cases with the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7), 299 more cases with Beta (B.1.351) variant and 55 additional cases with Theta (P.3) variant in its latest genomic sequencing run involving 679 samples.
These additional cases brought the total Alpha cases detected in the country to 1,481, the Beta cases to 1,685 and the Theta cases to 221.
There remained only two Gamma (P.1) cases in the Philippines. The Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta are all variants of concern (VOC) while Theta, which first emerged in Central Visayas, is a variant with alerts for further monitoring.
As of July 15, a total of 8,557 coronavirus-positive samples have been sequenced. Of these, 84 percent or 7,216 have Sars-CoV-2 variants with assigned lineages.
The samples sequenced constitute only 0.57 percent of the 1,496,328 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country as of July 16. Due to lack of resources, health authorities conduct whole genome sequencing only on coronavirus-positive samples from inbound travelers, areas experiencing a surge and cases with unique presentation of the disease.
Delta variant
Among the VOCs, the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) has been tagged as the most worrisome because of its high transmissibility and resistance to antibodies.
This variant emerged in India in September 2020, and caused an acute shortage of oxygen and hospital beds, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. It has now spread to 98 countries, including Indonesia, where it is causing an almost vertical epidemic curve with record high cases reported daily.
Among the four VOCs, studies have shown that the Delta variant has the highest reproduction rate.
A person with the original Sars-CoV-2 strain could infect two other people.
The Alpha variant, which was first reported in the United Kingdom, could infect four or five other people.
The Delta variant could infect up to eight other people, Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco-de la Paz, executive director of the University of the Philippines - National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH), said, citing data from Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.
The World Health Organization earlier described it as the “fastest and fittest” variant yet, and it will “pick off” the most vulnerable people, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.
De la Paz also cited Gavi data that showed Delta may be manifesting different symptoms.
In Southeast China, De la Paz said there are reports that patients developed more severe symptoms and their conditions deteriorated quickly.
In the United Kingdom, she said a study tracking Covid-19 symptoms via a smartphone app found that headache is the most common symptom.
De la Paz also cited reports saying more younger people mistook symptoms for a bad cold.
There is also preliminary evidence from the UK that people infected with Delta are about twice as likely to require hospital admission while a study in Singapore said Delta cases are associated with higher odds of oxygen requirement, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, or death. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)