The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday the highly infectious Omicron variant would eventually replace Delta as the dominant variant of the coronavirus in the Philippines.
“It’s very likely that the Omicron variant is going to replace the Delta variant as much as the Delta variant replaced the earlier Alpha and Beta variants,” Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO country representative for the Philippines, said in an interview with ANC.
“We have to prepare for that eventuality when the Omicron variant starts spreading in the Philippines,” he added.
Abeyasinghe’s remarks came after the government confirmed the country’s first two Omicron cases, both imported.
They also came as the G7 called the Omicron variant the “biggest current threat to global public health,” saying its emergence meant it was “more important than ever” for countries to “closely cooperate.”
“Deeply concerned by the rise in cases, ministers agreed that these developments should be seen as the biggest current threat to global public health,” Britain, which is currently chair of the group, said in a statement.
It is more important than ever to closely cooperate, and monitor as well as share data,” it added.
The G7 health ministers earlier held their final meeting hosted by Britain, which has seen spiraling case rates over recent days, registering a record 78,000 new cases in one day.
The ministers focussed on global access to diagnostics, genome sequencing, vaccines and therapeutics in a bid to combat its spread.
“They also agreed on the increasing importance of booster campaigns and regular testing alongside continued non-pharmaceutical measures,” the statement said.
The Philippines logged 582 new COVID-19 cases on Friday bringing the total case count to 2,837,464.
There were 74 new fatalities reported, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 50,570.
The Department of Health (DOH) also reported 494 new recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 2,776,727.
There were 10,167 active cases, of which 539 are asymptomatic; 4,015 mild; 3,415 moderate; 1,815 severe; and 383 critical.
Nationwide, 22 percent of ICU beds, 23 percent of isolation beds, 12 percent of ward beds, and 12 percent of ventilators, were in use.
In Metro Manila, 24 percent of ICU beds, 19 percent of isolation beds, 18 percent of ward beds, and 15 percent of ventilators, were in use.
The DOH also reported that the country’s COVID-19 positivity rate was at 1 percent, based on 33,545 tests conducted on Dec. 15.
Also on Friday, the independent OCTA Research Group said the number of cases of COVID-19 in Quezon City in December have been the lowest since March 2020.
The seven-day average in new daily COVID-19 cases in the city decreased to 17 for the week from Dec. 10 to 16.
This is 28 percent lower than the seven-day average of 24 for the week from Dec. 3-9.
The current number is the lowest seven-day average in Quezon City since March 21 to 27, 2020, just three weeks after the first case of COVID-19 in the city was reported.
The city’s reproduction number—which measures the number of people one case can infect—was 0.36 on Dec. 13, which is considered very low. A reproduction number below 1 indicates that virus infections are declining.
The RT-PCR testing positivity rate decreased to 1.0 percent, which is also considered very low.
“Quezon City, practically speaking, is a very low risk area using indicators based on covidactnow.org,” it added.
“Quezon City residents will have a merrier Christmas compared to 2020. Nevertheless, we urge the public to stay vigilant and follow minimum public health standards so that we will all enjoy a safe holiday season,” the group said.