The Philippines has detected its first case of Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday.
The DOH recorded one case of the variant in Western Visayas in its genome sequencing report from April 12 to 17.
XBB.1.16 is spreading around the world and was detected in 33 countries.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), XBB.1.16 is a descendent lineage of XBB, a recombinant of two BA.2 descendent lineages.
XBB.1.16 was first reported on January 9, 2023, and designated a variant under monitoring (VUM) on 22 March 2023.
On April 17, 2023, XBB.1.16 was designated a variant of interest (VOI). XBB.1.16 has a similar genetic profile as the VOI XBB.1.5, with the additional E180V and K478R amino acid mutations in the spike protein compared to their parent XBB.1.