MANILA, Apr 19 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH), reported yesterday, 10,098 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 936,133.
The death toll climbed to 15,960, after 150 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.
The Philippines, which has about 110-million population, has tested over 10 million people, since the outbreak in Jan, 2020.
The country continues to detect more coronavirus variants, as the number of infections soars.
The DOH confirmed yesterday, the detection of 642 new cases of the fast-spreading variants, in the 752 sequenced samples taken from returning overseas Filipinos and local communities.
The DOH said, the newly-detected variants include 266 cases of B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in Britain, 351 cases of B.1.351, first found in South Africa, and 25 cases of the P.3 variant found in the Philippines.
The DOH said, the P.3 variant “is still not identified as a variant of concern, since current data is insufficient to determine whether the variant will have significant public health implications.”
The Philippines detected over 1,500 variant cases, since it started genome sequencing early this year.– NNN-PNA
