The World Health Organization (WHO) Tuesday declared a community transmission of the Delta variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

In a virtual press conference, WHO Representative to the Philippines Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe said: "The Delta variant has become the most dominant variant based on the limited sequencing data that we have. That is confirmed."

"With this kind of transmission and this kind of numbers, we are seeing a community transmission of the Delta variant," he said.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday said there are 1,789 Delta variant cases in 16 of the 17 regions in the country.

"That is actually happening in the country, in the rapid increase in the number of cases that we are seeing. We do know that the Delta variant spreads very fast, it is more transmissible, and has a shorter incubation period," said the WHO official.

"Nearly 70 percent of the last sequencing run was attributed to Delta variant," noted Abeyasinghe.

The DOH had declared community transmission of the Delta variant in NCR and Calabarzon. But the DOH reiterated that it ordered doctors to treat every case as if it were Delta variant. DMS