MANILA-The first XBB.1.5 infection detected in the country is a local case, a health official said Tuesday. "Itong XBB.1.5 na case is a Filipino, local siya na detection, there were no histories of any type of travel, unknown 'yung kanyang exposure (This XBB.1.5 case is a Filipino, it's a local detection, there were unknown histories of travel, the exposure is unknown)," said Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a media briefing. The DOH reported the first case of XBB.1.5 and three cases of CH.1.1, which were part of the 1,078 samples sequenced by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center on Jan. 28 to Feb. 3. The XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron is a mutation of the BA.2. "Nagkaroon lang siya ng konting mga sintomas na mild, nagkalagnat, sumakit ang mga kasu-kasuan(The case only had few mild symptoms and had fever and joint pains). But right now, already recov
Australia said it would expand the rollout of the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines from next week as it battles a steady rise in hospital admissions fuelled by the highly transmissible new Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5.