Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 16) — The country’s first reported case of the Omicron subvariant XBF is a Filipino senior citizen who has already recovered from the disease, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.
The patient also had no known history of travel, the DOH said in a message to reporters.
“The individual presented mild symptoms, and has already been tagged as recovered,” the agency noted.
The XBF — a recombinant sublineage of other Omicron variants — has been linked to the recent COVID-19 case spikes in Australia and Sweden.
The government’s latest biosurveillance report showed that the lone infection was sequenced on Jan. 28. The specimen was collected last December.
“Further, global experts are still characterizing the variant in terms of transmissibility, immune evasion, and ability to cause more severe disease,” the DOH said.
The department again urged the public to get their vaccines and booster shots following the detection of new emerging variants.
