THE Department of Health (DOH) has detected nearly 1,000 more cases of Omicron subvariants, health undersecretary Beverly Ho said on Thursday, July 28, 2022.Ho said 890 additional cases of BA.5, 18 more cases of BA.4 and 15 new cases of BA.2.12.1 were detected in the latest genome sequencing run.BA.5 casesShe said of the 890 BA.5 cases, nine were returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) while the others were detected in all regions in the country except for Bangsamoro and Soccksargen.Ho said 823 of the newly detected BA.5 cases were already tagged as recovered, 31 were still under isolation while 36 were still under verification.She said 650 of the said cases were fully vaccinated.BA.4 casesOf the newly detected BA.4 cases, seven were from Metro Manila, six from Bicol region, two from the Cordillera Region and one each from Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Calabarzon.Ho said 17 of them have been tagged as recovered while the condition of the other is still under verification.She said 13 of them were fully vaccinated while the others are still for verification.BA.2.12.1 casesOn the new BA.2.12.1 cases, five were from Metro Manila, four from the Cordillera Region, three from Calabarzon, and one each from Mimaropa, Ilocos Region and outside the Philippines.The country has so far detected a total of 1,997 cases of the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant, the BA.5; 54 BA.2.12.1 cases, and 71 BA.4 cases.Ho said one case each of BA.5 and BA.4 were removed due to duplication.PH still at low riskHo said the country remains at low risk for coronavirus disease (Covid-19). NCR, however, is at moderate risk.She said that the critical and severe admissions remained at low risk at less than 1,000 since the middle of March.From July 18 to 24, the DOH has recorded 19,536 new Covid-19 cases, 33-percent higher than the cases detected from July 11 to 17.The non-intensive care unit (ICU) utilization over the past week was at 26 percent while 21.7 percent in the ICU occupancy.A total of 71,546,355 individuals in the country have been fully vaccinated while 15,934,251 received additional doses. (SunStar Philippines)