First 2 cases detected in Central Luzon, variant behind surge in South Africa
The Philippines has already detected the first two cases of the Omicron BA.5 coronavirus variant in two persons from Central Luzon, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.
This developed as OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said these variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 could bring up daily cases again to around 10,000.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in May said subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 were behind the surge in cases in South Africa.
Both subvariants are 10 percent to 30 percent more transmissible than BA.2, which in turn is 20 percent to 30 percent more infectious than the original Omicron variant, according to DOH infectious disease expert Dr. Edsel Salvana.
“The concern in South Africa is that the BA.4 and BA.5 are again driving a fifth wave. It seemed it peaked quickly, one-third or one-fourth the peak of their original Omicron,” Salvana said.
Meanwhile, OCTA’s David told Karen Davila in a television interview on ANC: “To be fair, (the surge) might not be as bad as we saw in January, we still have a high number of vaccinations.”
“And the growth advantage of these subvariants is not very far, very high compared to the BA2 that spread in the country. We might be seeing 5,000 to 10,000 cases per day, but nowhere near the 40,000 (daily) cases we saw back in January,” he added.
“But of course, that is still subject to change. We are still monitoring the trends in South Africa, in India,” and in the United States,” David said.
However, doctors are in favor of lifting the state of public health emergency in the country.
“We still have a low number of cases. So, we support the lifting of the state of public health emergency,” Dr. Maricar Limpin of the Philippine College of Physicians said.
“We approve of it being lifted so the economy can be lively again, because we have to really lift up our economy,” she said.
But the DOH said it is not yet time to lift the state of calamity, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
“We saw an increase in cases in other areas. Second, there are variants that have entered the country that are deemed to be more transmissible, and they also have an immune escape mechanism,” she said in Filipino in a radio interview.
Vergeire said the patients with BA.5 had no travel history except to their polling precinct in Metro Manila.
The two immediately isolated after experiencing coughs and colds, and are now asymptomatic and tagged as recovered, she said.
The patients had two close contacts, who were members of their household and continued to isolate after one of them tested positive for the virus, Vergeire said.
The Philippines last month reported its first Omicron BA.4 subvariant in a Filipino returning from the Middle East and have so far reported 22 cases of the Omicron BA.2.12.1 subvariant.
The current COVID-19 state of calamity is set to expire in September.
“So, it will be up to the president if it’s going to be lifted or not, based on recommendations from the DOH and the experts,” she said.
Lifting the country’s state of calamity declaration for COVID-19 would also invalidate the emergency use authorization (EUA) of vaccines and drugs against the illness, the DOH said.
Only the WHO can lift the public health emergency it declared for COVID-19, which a group of doctors recently sought, Vergeire said.
She said the Philippines, however, can choose whether or not to prolong its state of calamity declaration, which was extended twice already.
Vergeire said the DOH has presented to the Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 the implications of ending the state of calamity, including its effect on the authorization for vaccines.
She said experts are projecting an increase in cases by the end of July or early August due to waning immunity.
With 40 areas yet to meet the government’s COVID-19 vaccination target, it was too soon to remove the country’s alert level status, Vergeire added.
Limpin, meanwhile, said now was not the time to lift mask mandates, saying masks have kept infection numbers low.
She said other countries that have lifted mask mandates have experienced increases in COVID-19 cases.
Also on Friday, the DOH said a second booster against COVID-19 for people with comorbidities was not yet recommended.
Vergeire said that under the emergency use authorization (EUA), second booster jabs are only for senior citizens, health care workers, and immunocompromised individuals.
Vergeire made the statement after an infectious disease expert expressed hope that the coverage of the second booster will be extended to individuals with comorbidities.
Earlier, the presidential adviser for entrepreneurship, Joey Concepcion, called for the lifting of the state of public emergency now that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has brought down travel-risk classification to the lowest level.
“Lifting the state of public health emergency would promote confidence among the population. Doing so will also lift the alert levels that have been the basis of mobility and capacity restrictions and are based on vaccination rates and healthcare utilization rates,” he said.
According to the CDC, the Philippines is now in a Level 1 travel risk classification, considered the lowest risk classification reserved for countries that have 49 or fewer new cases per 100,000 residents over the last 28 days.
He said even countries like Australia, Singapore, Canada, the UK, Spain, and Italy—which are on CDC’s Level 3, or high-risk category—are not under a state of public health emergency.
