As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spread to 57 countries, health officials here said they have not found it yet among 48 samples that underwent whole genome sequencing on Dec. 8.
The samples were taken from 12 returning Filipinos and 36 local cases from areas with high-risk average daily attack rates and case clusters.
The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier said the Omicron coronavirus variant is now present in 57 countries, as South Korea reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases.
The WHO warned that the rate of hospitalization resulting from infection is likely to rise.
"Even if the severity is equal or potentially even lower than for Delta variant, it is expected that hospitalizations will increase if more people become infected and that there will be a time lag between an increase in the incidence of cases and an increase in the incidence of deaths," it said.
In an interview with the AFP news agency on Tuesday, the WHO's Director of Health Emergencies Michael Ryan said it was "highly unlikely" that the new variant dodged vaccine protections entirely.
However, he cautioned against drawing full-fledged conclusions from preliminary data.
The Philippines logged 562 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total case count to 2,835,996.
There were 176 new fatalities, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 49,936.
The Department of Health also reported 882 new recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 2,835,996.
There were 12,169 active cases, of which 851 were asymptomatic; 4,838 mild; 3,857 moderate; 2,177 severe; and 446 critical.
The positivity rate was at 1.6 percent, based on test results of samples from 33,295 people tested on Dec. 7.
Nationwide, 26 percent of ICU beds, 24 percent of isolation beds, 13 percent of ward beds, and 14 percent of ventilators, were in use.
In Metro Manila, 29 percent of ICU beds, 21 percent of isolation beds, 19 percent of ward beds, and 17 percent of ventilators, were in use.
