MANILA — The Department of Health on Friday confirmed the detection of BQ.1, a sublineage of the highly transmissible Omicron BA.5 subvariant.
Based on the Covid-19 biosurveillance report from October 28 to November 18, health authorities have detected 14 cases of BQ.1.
Thirteen of the local cases were from the Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos region, Calabarzon, Central Visayas and Metro Manila.
Vergeire stated that BQ.1 is “more transmissible and highly-immune evasive” than other Omicron subvariants.
BQ.1 has been classified as a variant of interest by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
“It is likely that these additional mutations have conferred an immune escape advantage over other circulating Omicron sublineages, and therefore a higher reinfection risk is a possibility that needs further investigation,” the World Health Organization said in a statement last month.
From November 14 to 20, the DOH reported 8,004 additional Covid-19 cases. The number of cases averaged 1,143 in the past week, which was 12% lower than the number of infections logged from November 7 to 13.
Since the pandemic began, the Philippines has registered over 4.02 million cases, with 64,504 fatalities.
