Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Friday contact tracers are trying to find out if 11 out of the 16 new cases of the Delta variant had close contacts, dzBB said.

''Local government units are doing contract tracing in their areas where these persons stayed,'' said Duque. Total Delta variant cases in the country are at 35.

Asked if the presence of 11 local Delta variant cases means there is local transmission, Epidemiology Bureau Director Alethea de Guzman said it would be premature.

"I will say 'not yet' because we have not been able to link this one case to another," said de Guzman in a virtual forum.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said: ''This variant can be found across these places. They are sporadic. It is not in just one area, where there are clustering."

Six out of the 16 Delta variant cases were in Region 10, five from returning overseas Filipino workers, two each in the National Capital Region and Western Visayas and one in Central Luzon, dzBB said.

Vergeire said one died while 15 persons recovered. DMS