THE University of the Philippines Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) is verifying community transmission of the Delta variant of Sars-CoV-2 in four more regions.
These are Central Luzon, Northern Mindanao, Western Visayas and Central Visayas.
The Department of Health (DOH) earlier announced community transmission of the Delta variant in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon because the source of infection can no longer be identified and the cases cannot be epidemiologically linked to each other.
"We still have to validate the other cases, such as in Region III, Region X, Region VI, and Region VII if they are already having community transmission," UP-PGC Executive Director Cynthia Saloma said in a televised public briefing Friday, September 3, 2021.
"But these are still subject to further deliberation," she added.
Meanwhile, the DOH clarified Friday that there is still no Delta case in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
In a separate virtual press briefing, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said further validation showed that the swab samples found to have the Delta variant were not from BARMM.
"Upon further validation, these are two returning overseas Filipinos that were made to undergo mandatory quarantine in BARMM but they are not really coming from that specific area," Vergeire said.
"We came out with a correction that we still don't have identified Delta variant cases in the BARMM," she added.
The Delta variant has been detected in 16 out of 17 regions. Only the BARMM does not have a Delta case. (HDT / SunStar Philippines)