Inihayag ng isang opisyal ng Department of Health (DOH) nitong Lunes na hindi pa dominant variant ng COVID-19 sa Pilipinas ang Omicron.
Ayon kay DOH Undersecretary at treatment czar Leopoldo Vega, bagamat nasa Pilipinas na ang Omicron ay hindi pa ito dominante sa ngayon.
Aniya, maaaring abutin pa ng tatlo hanggang apat na linggo bago tuluyang maging dominant variant ng COVID-19 sa Pilipinas ang Omicron.
Aniya pa, nananatili pa ring banta sa Pilipinas ang Delta variant.
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“I think we now have still the Delta around but since we reported our first Omicron case way back December 5 and there has been a continuous increase in the sequencing of this Omicron virus, it looks like we will presume that the Omicron is here but it's still not dominant,” ani Vega, sa panayam sa telebisyon.
“I think in about three to four weeks, as predicted, the Omicron will be dominant in terms of 50% to 90% of the cases, overtaking the Delta virus. But the Delta virus is definitely still around with us,” dagdag pa niya.
Sinabi pa ni Vega na ang COVID-19 infections ay magpi-peak pa sa mga susunod na araw, at wala pang katiyakan kung mababawasan ito.
Paliwanag ni Vega, ang Omicron ay may mas mataas na high transmissibility rate, na nasa 30 hanggang 50%, kumpara sa Delta.
“We are preparing our health system capacity, our testing, isolation so that we are all prepared in this another ride in the wave of this Omicron virus,” ani Vega.
Samantala, pinawi rin naman ng opisyal ang pangamba ng publiko laban sa napaulat na sakit na Florona, o kumbinasyon ng trangkaso at COVID-19, na unang natukoy sa isang buntis sa Israel.
Ayon kay Vega, hindi pa ito concern ngayon sa Pilipinas at maaari lamang itong mangyari kung mahina ang immunity ng isang tao at walang anumang proteksyon laban sa mga virus.
“I think what Israel was stating is that they found this in a patient who have a very poor immunity and a pregnant woman and there were two viruses that actually set in, the one is the influenza virus and the other is the coronavirus,” ani Vega. “That can happen especially if you don't have the immunity where you will be protected by these viruses.”
Mary Ann Santiago
